Material deprivation and health: a longitudinal study

BACKGROUND: Does material deprivation affect the consequences of ill health? Answering this question requires that we move beyond the effects of income. Longitudinal data on material deprivation, longstanding illness and limiting longstanding illness enables investigations of the effects of material deprivation on risk of limiting longstanding illness. This study investigates whether a shift from affording to not affording a car predicts the probability of limiting longstanding ill (LLSI). METHODS: The 2008–2011 longitudinal panel of Statistics on Income, Social Inclusion and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) is utilised. Longitudinal fixed effects logit models are applied, using LLSI as dependent variable. Transition from affording a car to not affording a car is used as a proxy for material deprivation. All models are controlled for whether the person becomes longstanding ill (LSI) as well as other time-variant covariates that could affect the results. RESULTS: The analysis shows a statistically significant increased odds ratio of LLSI when individuals no longer can afford a car, after controlling for confounders and LSI in the previous year (1.129, CI = 1.022–1.248). However, when restricting the sample to observations where respondents report longstanding illness the results are no longer significant (1.032, CI = 0.910–1.171). CONCLUSION: The results indicate an individual level effect of material deprivation on LLSI, suggesting that material resources can affect the consequences of ill health.