Income inequality and health outcomes in the United States: An empirical analysis

Abstract

A growing body of research suggests a relationship between health and income inequality. This study specifically analyzes the correlation between income inequality, measured by state-level Gini coefficients from the American Community Survey (ACS), and individual behavioral, physical, and mental health outcomes from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) for 2006 through 2014. After controlling for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, health insurance status, year trends, and state fixed effects, income inequality was found to have significant relationships with behavioral, physical, and mental health outcomes, including heavy drinking, obesity, exercise, diabetes, heart attack, heart disease, physical and mental health problems, and depression, and often the impact on low-income individuals is slightly smaller than on the high-income group. The research suggests that economic policies to address the rising income inequality in the United States might serve to also address some of our nation's most troubling health statistics.