Long term unemployment, income, poverty, and social public expenditure, and their relationship with self-perceived health in Spain (2007–2011)

Table 1 Individual and regional variables used to analyze the relationship between long-term unemployment and health

LEVEL 1 (year): 36,420 observations
Years	2007–2011
LEVEL 2 (individual) 9105 individuals
Dependent variable	Self-perceived health (collapsed): Good (Very good/Good) - Bad (Fair/Bad/Very bad) Self-perceived health: Very good/Good/Fair/Bad/Very bad
Independent variables
Individual	Sociodemographic	Age (range: 16–65)^a Gender (male/female) Chronic illness or chronic disability (Yes/No)
	Socioeconomic	Education level (Primary/Secondary/Higher) Activity status (Employed/Student/Homemaker/Other inactivity/Unemployed <12 months/ Long-term Unemployed, 12–23 months/Very-long-term unemployed (24–48 months) Equivalent household income^b (Neperian logarithm) Severe material deprivation (Yes/No)
LEVEL 3 (regional) 17 regions.
Regional	Public expenditure policies	Essential public services per capita^b,^c Health-care public expenditure per capita^b

^aCentered continuous variable
^bNominal values were converted to real values using 2007 as the base year and Consumer Price Index (National Statistics Institute) as a deflator
^cEssential public services include: health care (primary, specialized, and hospital assistance, public health, clinical research); education (kindergarten, primary, secondary, post-secondary, and higher, grants, support services to education); and social protection (retirement, illness, disability, advanced age, protection of families, unemployment, housing, attention to social exclusion)
Source: the authors

ISSN: 1471-2458