Political and Cultural Contexts of Health Inequalities: International Surveys ANALYZING DIFFERENCES IN THE MAGNITUDE OF SOCIOECONOMIC INEQUALITIES IN SELF-PERCEIVED HEALTH BY COUNTRIES OF DIFFERENT POLITICAL TRADITION IN EUROPE

The objectives of this study are to describe, for European countries, variationsamong political traditions in the magnitude of inequalities in self-perceivedhealth by educational level and to determine whether these variations changewhen contextual welfare state, labor market, wealth, and income inequalityvariables are taken into account. In this cross-sectional study, the authorslook at the population aged 25 to 64 in 13 European countries. Individualdata were obtained from the Health Interview Surveys of each country.Educational-level inequalities in self-perceived health exist in all countriesand in all political traditions, among both women and men. When countriesare grouped by political tradition, social democratic countries are found tohave the lowest educational-level inequalities.