An Integrated Analysis of Social, Economic, and Environmental Indicators’ Effects on Public Health and Health Inequality Globally: From the Perspective of Vulnerability

Public health and health inequality have been widely researched as they are essential for human development and social justice. Although factors influencing public health and health inequality have been explored, an integrated and comprehensive analysis of social, economic, and environmental indicators’ effects on public health and health inequality globally is yet to be conducted. The current study addresses this gap by using a theoretical framework that integrates these three dimensions, examining their effects on public health and health inequality from the perspective of vulnerability. Considering the spatial heterogeneity across countries, spatial econometric models and geographically weighted regressions were conducted for the examination of these effects. Our findings reveal the social indicators of urbanisation ratio, social education level, and social governance capacity had positive effects on public health promotion and health inequality elimination globally. Besides these, environmental risk and economic capacity had relatively low impacts on health inequality. Further, the geographically weighted regression results indicate that vulnerability’s effects on public health and health inequality varied significantly across countries. This integrated analysis provides national policymakers with a new perspective of vulnerability for public health promotion and health inequality reduction.