Mangalore Roshni, Knapp Martin, Jenkins Rachel
Personal Social Services Research Unit, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.
Psychol Med. 2007 Jul;37(7):1037-45. doi: 10.1017/S003329170600969X. Epub 2007 Jan 4.
Reduction of health inequalities is a major policy goal in the UK. While there is general recognition of the disadvantaged position of people with mental health problems, the extent of inequality, particularly the association with socio-economic characteristics, has not been widely studied. We aimed to measure income-related inequality in the distribution of psychiatric disorders and to compare with inequality in other health domains.
The concentration index (CI) approach was used to examine income-related inequality in mental health using data from the Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2000 for Britain.
There is marked inequality unfavourable to lower income groups with respect to mental health disorders. The extent of inequality increases with the severity of problems, with the greatest inequality observed for psychosis. Income-related inequality for psychiatric disorders is higher than for general health in the UK. Standardized CIs suggest that these inequalities are not due to the demographic composition of the income quintiles.
Income-related inequalities exist in mental health in Britain. As much of the observed inequality is probably due to factors associated with income and not due to the demographic composition of the income quintiles, it may be that these inequalities are potentially 'avoidable'.
减少健康不平等是英国的一项主要政策目标。虽然人们普遍认识到有心理健康问题的人群处于不利地位，但不平等的程度，尤其是与社会经济特征的关联，尚未得到广泛研究。我们旨在衡量精神疾病分布中与收入相关的不平等，并与其他健康领域的不平等进行比较。
采用集中指数（CI）方法，利用2000年英国精神疾病发病率调查的数据，研究心理健康方面与收入相关的不平等。
在心理健康障碍方面，存在明显不利于低收入群体的不平等现象。不平等程度随着问题的严重程度而增加，精神病方面的不平等最为明显。在英国，精神疾病与收入相关的不平等高于一般健康状况。标准化集中指数表明，这些不平等并非由于收入五分位数的人口构成所致。
英国心理健康方面存在与收入相关的不平等。由于观察到的不平等大多可能是由与收入相关的因素导致，而非收入五分位数的人口构成，所以这些不平等可能是“可避免的”。
