A Proposal for a Synthetic Health Indicator in the European Union: an Analysis of Gender Health Inequalities

Health has been measured using different indicators such as self-rated health, mental health, psychological wellbeing, depressive symptoms, limiting longstanding illness or mortality rates, among others. In this framework, this paper aims to create a Synthetic Health Indicator using the P2 distance method which offers an alternative to measure individuals’ health in the European Union covering different dimensions: physical health, mental health, psychosocial resources, capacity of health services and community health status. As a secondary aim, the paper also explores the existence of gender health inequalities in the 28 European Union countries. Results suggest that physical, mental and psychosocial dimensions of health are more correlated with the Synthetic Health Indicator and also point to the presence of a territorial pattern throughout Europe. Northern and southern European countries had better average levels of health than eastern European countries, which showed poorer levels of health. Moreover, gender health gaps were not generally statistically significant in countries with higher scores in the Synthetic Health Indicator, with some exceptions, namely Spain, Ireland and Finland, although for most of the countries analyzed the differences favored women. Once the outcomes have been explained, the findings suggest that the different health regimes, as well as the family and social policies implemented by various governments as tools to mitigate gender inequalities, play an essential role.