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Social disadvantage, economic inequality, and life expectancy in nine Indian states

An extensive literature documents the contributions of discrimination and social exclusion to health disparities. This study investigates life expectancy differentials along lines of caste, religion, and indigenous identity in India, home to some of the largest populations of marginalized social gro...

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Autores principales: Vyas, Sangita, Hathi, Payal, Gupta, Aashish
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: National Academy of Sciences 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8915795/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35238635
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2109226119
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author Vyas, Sangita
Hathi, Payal
Gupta, Aashish
author_facet Vyas, Sangita
Hathi, Payal
Gupta, Aashish
author_sort Vyas, Sangita
collection PubMed
description An extensive literature documents the contributions of discrimination and social exclusion to health disparities. This study investigates life expectancy differentials along lines of caste, religion, and indigenous identity in India, home to some of the largest populations of marginalized social groups in the world. Using a large, high-quality survey that measured mortality, social group, and economic status, we estimate and decompose life expectancy differences between higher-caste Hindus, comprising other backward classes and high-caste Hindus, and three of India’s most disadvantaged social groups: Adivasis, Dalits, and Muslims. Relative to higher-caste Hindus, Adivasi life expectancy is more than 4 y lower, Dalit life expectancy is more than 3 y lower, and Muslim life expectancy is about 1 y lower. Economic status explains less than half of these gaps. The differences between the life expectancy of higher-caste Hindus and the life expectancies of Adivasis and Dalits are comparable to the Black–White gap in the United States in absolute magnitude. The differences are larger in relative terms because overall life expectancy in India is lower. Our findings extend the literature on fundamental causes of global health disparities. Methodologically, we contribute to the literature on mortality estimation and demographic decomposition using survey data from low- and middle-income contexts.
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spelling pubmed-89157952022-09-01 Social disadvantage, economic inequality, and life expectancy in nine Indian states Vyas, Sangita Hathi, Payal Gupta, Aashish Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Social Sciences An extensive literature documents the contributions of discrimination and social exclusion to health disparities. This study investigates life expectancy differentials along lines of caste, religion, and indigenous identity in India, home to some of the largest populations of marginalized social groups in the world. Using a large, high-quality survey that measured mortality, social group, and economic status, we estimate and decompose life expectancy differences between higher-caste Hindus, comprising other backward classes and high-caste Hindus, and three of India’s most disadvantaged social groups: Adivasis, Dalits, and Muslims. Relative to higher-caste Hindus, Adivasi life expectancy is more than 4 y lower, Dalit life expectancy is more than 3 y lower, and Muslim life expectancy is about 1 y lower. Economic status explains less than half of these gaps. The differences between the life expectancy of higher-caste Hindus and the life expectancies of Adivasis and Dalits are comparable to the Black–White gap in the United States in absolute magnitude. The differences are larger in relative terms because overall life expectancy in India is lower. Our findings extend the literature on fundamental causes of global health disparities. Methodologically, we contribute to the literature on mortality estimation and demographic decomposition using survey data from low- and middle-income contexts. National Academy of Sciences 2022-03-01 2022-03-08 /pmc/articles/PMC8915795/ /pubmed/35238635 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2109226119 Text en Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Social Sciences
Vyas, Sangita
Hathi, Payal
Gupta, Aashish
Social disadvantage, economic inequality, and life expectancy in nine Indian states
title Social disadvantage, economic inequality, and life expectancy in nine Indian states
title_full Social disadvantage, economic inequality, and life expectancy in nine Indian states
title_fullStr Social disadvantage, economic inequality, and life expectancy in nine Indian states
title_full_unstemmed Social disadvantage, economic inequality, and life expectancy in nine Indian states
title_short Social disadvantage, economic inequality, and life expectancy in nine Indian states
title_sort social disadvantage, economic inequality, and life expectancy in nine indian states
topic Social Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8915795/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35238635
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2109226119
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