Income Inequality, Poverty, Welfare Policy, and Physical Activity: A Multilevel Analysis of the U.S. States.

• In Event: 480 - Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 05. Health in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Over the last two decades, scholars have investigated the effect of income inequality on mortality and morbidity. Less attention has been dedicated to whether inequality also affects health-related behaviors. In a series of multi-level binary logistic regression models across the contiguous U.S. states I use individual-level data from the 2007 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (N=379,394) to examine the association between income inequality, poverty, welfare policies, and physical activity. I focus on the U.S. as it is a valuable source of theoretical insight. Compared with other affluent nations, the U.S. exhibits a high level of economic inequality, and inequality between U.S. states varies substantially. Furthermore, comparing welfare policies within a singular national context represents a more methodologically sound and nuanced assessment of public intervention. The results suggest that income inequality is significantly and negatively associated with physical activity. However, this effect becomes insignificant once absolute poverty is taken into account. Further, the positive effect of welfare state policies on physical activity nullifies the effect of both inequality and poverty, thus implying that state policies are able to counter the negative effect of income inequality on individual health behaviors. This reinforces the idea that broader social forces shape individual health outcomes, as well furthers our understanding of the relationship between health behaviors and economic inequality, poverty and social policy.

Author

• Simone Rambotti, University of Arizona