Is there a relation between the income level of autonomous communities, the inequality in its distribution and the risk of poverty with the level of health?

Abstract

The principal objective of this paper is to present the inequalities in health in the Autonomous Communities of Spain, understanding health as a factor linked to other factors such as distribution of income and poverty, linking them to social determinants. Based on Informe Foessa of 2006, the study consisted in applying a Cluster Analysis technique to three structural variables of the socio-economic type, relating them with five health variables, allowing the demonstration of the inequalities from different angles. The differences are related to financing and its distribution in healthcare spending, to variables related to health factors, such as birth, mortality and life expectancy indicators, access to the system, the sensibility to policies aimed at reducing inequalities in Elath and also on the relations between poverty and health. The results are grouped in a typology that indicates a decline, according to which the CCAA that present a better position in relation to the level of income, inequality of income and risk of poverty, also display a better position in the level of health, according to the variables analyzed: state of health, birth and mortality.