Examining Health Inequalities in Latvia: A Decade of Association between Socioeconomic Position and Perceived Health Status

Table 2

Descriptive statistics.

Variables	2015		2010		2005
Age group (in years)	[]		[]		[]
<30	16.66		21.15		22.63
31–44	18.97		19.41		21.99
45–60	27.16		26.98		25.15
61–74	21.31		20.05		19.69
75+	15.90		12.41		10.54
Age group (in years) by gender	Female (%)		Female (%)		Female (%)
<30	14.20		18.38		19.35
31–44	16.96		17.92		20.51
45–60	26.09		26.25		24.86
61–74	23.08		21.72		21.92
75+	19.67		15.73		13.36
Settlement of residence (%)
Urban	71.87		65.49		¥
Rural	28.13		34.51		¥
Perceived health status distribution (%)
Very good	3.83		3.82		2.46
Good	37.14		39.67		30.54
Average	40.06		36.77		43.62
Bad	15.21		15.81		17.33
Very bad	3.76		3.93		6.05
Perceived health status (%) (gender = female)
Very good	2.99		3.03		1.64
Good	33.97		36.30		26.94
Average	41.50		38.55		44.32
Bad	17.07		17.60		19.91
Very bad	4.47		4.52		7.19
Denial of needed healthcare services Reason (% of denied services)	12.36		21.35		29.66
Affordability	59.48		63.32		57.43
Distance	3.32		2.76		2.09
Work/childcare	5.87		7.31		11.74
Chronic disease (%)	46.01		38.87		37.72
Disability (%)	42.58		34.57		34.66
Working status (%)
Employed	49.31		41.85		50.12
Retired	31.20		29.99		29.42
Ownership of house (%)	81.72		85.41		78.91
Overall condition of dwelling unit as bad (%)	24.92		25.19		39.90
Vulnerable neighborhood security/safety (%)	11.69		22.40		21.82
Ownership of car (%)	55.12		51.43		42.61
Ownership of computer (%)	71.72		59.64		33.67
Ease of survival; ability to make both ends meet (%), with difficulty	78.49		85.48		86.98
Ease of paying the loan (%), with difficulty	72.52		82.47		79.81
Adult equivalent household income (€)
Mean	11627.90		8899.24		3197.83
Median	9570.68		7195.88		2578.24
Gini coefficient	0.365		0.360		0.357
Socioeconomic position (SEP) distribution (%)
Poorest	24.00		22.12		21.36
2nd poorest	21.07		21.47		21.13
Middle	19.17		19.89		19.94
2nd richest	18.54		18.36		19.34
Richest	17.22		18.16		18.23
Distribution of perceived health (%) across SEP	Average	Bad and very bad	Average	Bad and very bad	Average	Bad and very bad
Poorest	26.13	52.21	24.32	43.88	18.82	39.30
2nd poorest	23.65	23.50	23.43	27.94	20.74	29.86
Middle	19.04	13.13	21.14	14.09	21.93	15.77
2nd richest	17.63	7.93	16.84	9.00	19.92	10.57
Richest	13.55	3.23	14.28	5.09	18.59	4.50
Chi-square ()	0.000		0.000		0.000

¥: no data of the variable is available in the wave.