Study: Neighbourhood inequality and self-perceived health status

People living in low income report somewhat better health when they share neighbourhoods with individuals who are more affluent and better educated, according to a new study.

The study examines whether health status, as reported by respondents, is associated with the income and education mix of their residential neighbourhoods, in addition to the well-established finding that individuals with higher incomes tend to be healthier.

The analysis was based on the 1996/1997 National Population Health Survey in combination with neighbourhood level data based on census tracts. The study sample included more than 34,000 people living in 3,044 census tracts in Canada's 25 largest census metropolitan areas.

The study found that most neighbourhoods in these large urban centres are economically heterogeneous, with almost as much variation in incomes within each neighbourhood as across their city as a whole. In other words, Canada's largest cities do not have that many neighbourhoods where residents mostly have either low income or are affluent. In fact, most low-income individuals in these cities do not live in neighbourhoods of concentrated low income.

Many previous studies have concentrated on the relationship between income inequality in a community and health status, hypothesizing that high inequality leads to poorer health outcomes. Most studies failed to find an association between income inequality and health status, once an individual's own socio-economic characteristics are taken into consideration.

This study was similar in finding that, when an individual's socio-economic characteristics are accounted for, high income inequality at the neighbourhood level is not associated with reduced self-rated health.

However, in neighbourhoods with a large proportion of affluent families and well-educated individuals, self-reported health status was higher among low-income persons than was the case for their counterparts in less affluent neighbourhoods.

These results suggest that low-income individuals living in neighbourhoods with more highly-educated and higher income families may benefit somewhat from richer community resources, such as recreational facilities, schools, family and health services.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 3236.

The research paper Neighbourhood Inequality, Relative Deprivation and Self-perceived Health Status, no. 228 (11F0019MIE2004228, free) is now available online. To access the Analytical Studies Research Paper Series, select Studies on the left side bar from the home page, then, under Browse periodical and series, choose Free and for sale. Under Series, select Analytical Studies Branch.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Feng Hou (613-951-4337; feng.hou@statcan.gc.ca) or John Myles (416-323-0070; johnf.myles@statcan.gc.ca), Business and Labour Market Analysis.