Income, income inequality and mortality in urban regions of Brazil

Neir A. Paes, Federal University of Paraiba
Mardone C França, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

The relationship between socioeconomic status and health has long been controversial. This study performs an empirical evaluation of the hypotheses of absolute income and income inequality for adults in the metropolitan regions of Brazil, in 2000, correlating income level and income inequality with mortality by cardiovascular diseases and cancer. To test the hypotheses, multiple regression models were adjusted for each dependent variable. The significance of the models was tested by Analysis of Variance and t-Test. The results suggest that income inequality is not directly associated with the health of the adult population that live in the metropolitan regions of Brazil, corroborating many of the studies that point to mean income and not income inequality as the most important for the health of individuals in developing countries.