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Rural public health still faces serious challenges in China. These challenges in rural public health reduce peasants’ well-being and social satisfaction. Examining the social factors of rural public health helps improve the public health in rural areas. This study attempts to characterize the relationship between social deprivation and rural public health in China. In particular, 14 indicators are integrated for assessing social deprivation, which is described from five domains: income, employment, education, housing and demographic structure. The analytic hierarchy process, Delphi method, entropy method and coefficient variation method are selected as weight determining methods to evaluate the corresponding weights for the indicators of social deprivation. Then, the best models are selected from ordinary least squares regression models, spatial lag models and spatial error models according to the performances of these models. The results of assessing social deprivation indicate that the spatial distribution of social deprivation has great heterogeneity in rural China. In addition, the relative levels of social deprivation among 31 provinces that are estimated by different weight determination methods remain stable. Finally, the spatial regression models reveal that social deprivation is a positive contributor to the maternal mortality rate and child mortality rate, while social deprivation presents negative relationships with the proportion of healthy elders.

In this paper, we draw on Irish SILC data to examine the roles of social class, non-class risk groups and state policies in influencing enforced material deprivation as Ireland moved from a period of economic boom through deep recession and on to early recovery. We also employ Sen’s capability approach to explore the extent to which certain social risk groups differ in their capacity to convert social class-differentiated resources into increased capability in relation to avoiding material deprivation. The findings refute the notion of polarization either across time as a result of recession or as a result of more vulnerable social risk groups experiencing more pronounced social class differences. Instead, the impact of recession on social class and social risk group operated mainly in an additive manner with each having a relatively independent impact on deprivation. The exception was lone parents who were less able to convert the benefits of higher social class position into reduced deprivation levels.

The inverse relationship between socioeconomic and health status has been well established in the literature. Disparities in health status due to socioeconomic conditions are unfair and can be prevented through appropriate health and social policies. The relation between socioeconomic factors and health outcomes can be proven at both the individual and geographic level. In this study, we follow the second stream of literature. The objective of the study is to measure how deprivation changes over time in an urban context, finding out whether socioeconomic inequalities association with health outcomes endure over time. To do so, a census-based deprivation index (GDI—Genoa Deprivation Index) have been developed using three aggregation methods—additive, Mazziotta–Pareto, and Pena distance. The innovation of the work is the attempt to evaluate deprivation over time, trying to formalize a methodological path replicable in other situation. Health status has been assessed using the standardized (premature) mortality ratios. The findings reveal that although deprivation inequalities continue to exist in Genoa, global levels have been decreasing. In addition, the rate of premature mortality has shown improvements. Despite this, GDI scores continue to be associated with premature deaths: individuals living in deprived areas report consistently high standardised mortality ratios.

The prevalence of non-communicable chronic diseases (NCDs) worldwide poses an alarming threat to public health. Recent literature has embraced the opinion that incorporating the social factors should advance the understanding of NCDs prevalence. In this context, examining the NCDs prevalence in association with area social deprivation should provide critical implications for coping with public health risks. However, few empirical studies have examined this specific issue, especially in the developing countries. Using the principal component analysis, an area social deprivation index (ASDI) is established for the Shenzhen city (China) by integrating ten indicators from four dimensions: education, housing, socially disadvantaged population, and economically disadvantaged population. The geographically weighted regression (GWR) is employed to analyze the associations between ASDI and the incidence rate of three prevalent NCDs at district scale. Spatial non-stationary relationships are identified for the three diseases. More specifically, prevalence of the three diseases is all positively correlated with the ASDI. Strength of the associations presents the geography that it generally decreases from the central city to the suburb. These findings suggest that greater possibility of NCDs prevalence would be expected in districts with higher social deprivation. Besides, the impact of social deprivation on NCDs prevalence is much stronger in the central city. The spatial stationarity can facilitate the formulation of location-specific preventive measurements. This paper is believed to provide an innovative insight for social indicators research.

Cancer has become an alarming threat to human health and well-being worldwide. Examining the social determinants of cancer prevalence should effectively inform the practices and strategies on cancer treatment and prevention. However, rather few studies have conducted in this regard for developing countries. This paper attempts to characterize the association between area deprivation and liver cancer prevalence using a case of Shenzhen, China. Data from 2009 to 2011 provided by Shenzhen’s Health Information Center are used to calculate the incidence rate of liver cancer at district level. An area deprivation index (ADI) at district level is established by integrating 13 indicators of 5 domains (income, employment, education, housing and demography). The weight for each indicator is determined by two typical subjective methods (AHP and fuzzy AHP) and two common objective methods (Entropy and Coefficient Variation). Quantitative comparisons indicate that the four methods are highly consistent though they assign different weight to the indicators. Spatial lag regression identifies significantly positive linear relationships between ADIs and liver cancer incidence rate from 2009 and 2010. It suggests that greater possibility of liver cancer prevalence would be expected in districts of higher social deprivation. The results also denote that the obtained relationships are insensitive to weight determination method and temporal dimension. Our study demonstrates that spatial autocorrelation should be incorporated for better understanding the association between area deprivation and liver cancer prevalence at district level. This paper provides some new insights into social indicators research.

This study investigates how the socio-demographic characteristics of Koreans with disabilities influence its social exclusion. We surveyed 810 people with various disabilities at welfare agencies for people with disabilities and centers for independent living across the country. We found that academic background, occupation, average monthly household income, health status, degree of disability, and status as a recipient of Korea’s national basic living allowance have the greatest influence on social exclusion. Those who are less educated, receive the national basic living allowance, are unemployed, have less average monthly household income, are less healthy, or are more severely disabled experience higher levels of social exclusion than other people with disabilities do. We investigated four types of social exclusion: exclusion from material distribution, exclusion from social rights, exclusion from participation and relationships, and exclusion based on culture and norms. More participants reported exclusion from social rights than other types of exclusion. Based on these findings, we suggest policy-related ways to lessen the social exclusion of people with disabilities in Korea.

The consequences of poverty have been shown in many studies. Growing up in poor families supposes higher social exclusion risk, the effects of which persist over time and suppose adulthood disadvantages, including but not limited to a higher risk of poverty in adult life. The main goals of the study are to establish which elements affect child poverty in Spain and Portugal and to check AROPE indicators (At Risk of Poverty or Social Exclusion) for accuracy and adequacy in comparing European poverty. The study was carried out through AROPE comparative secondary data analysis, a multidimensional poverty measure that allows comparison among European countries in the aftermath of the economic crisis (2005–2013). Principal data were taken from Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC, EUROSTAT) and European System of integrated Social Protection Statistics (ESSPROS, EUROSTAT). On one side, AROPE and components (poverty rate, severe material deprivation and households with very low work intensity) are analysed in two populations (younger than 16 years old and dependent children households) in Portugal and in Spain to identify differences. On the other, convergences and divergences between the two countries are analysed, finding different child poverty conditional factors as well as different impacts. In Spain, the main predictor is unemployment, while in Portugal, it is the level of poverty in the population. Additionally, we show that the investment and efficacy of social protection polices, through expenditure and social transfers, have a deep impact upon child poverty rate reduction across Europe. Potential mismatches in country comparison subsequent to AROPE construction components are also discussed. Our analysis finds that income structure variation has a bigger influence on AROPE than generalized structural poverty.

Poverty is commonly defined as a lack of economic resources that has negative social consequences, but surprisingly little is known about the importance of economic hardship for social outcomes. This article offers an empirical investigation into this issue. We apply panel data methods on longitudinal data from the Swedish Level-of-Living Survey 2000 and 2010 (n = 3089) to study whether poverty affects four social outcomes— close social relations (social support), other social relations (friends and relatives), political participation, and activity in organizations. We also compare these effects across five different poverty indicators. Our main conclusion is that poverty in general has negative effects on social life. It has more harmful effects for relations with friends and relatives than for social support; and more for political participation than organizational activity. The poverty indicator that shows the greatest impact is material deprivation (lack of cash margin), while the most prevalent poverty indicators—absolute income poverty, and especially relative income poverty—appear to have the least effect on social outcomes.

There has been growing research interest into poverty and social exclusion in Hong Kong over the past 30 years. However, the development of surveys in this field continues to be primarily ‘top-down’ or ‘expert-led’. ‘Bottom-up’ or ‘lay’ perspectives, utilising the views of ordinary members of the public, are rarely incorporated. This article discusses the use of consensual focus group methods to advance the theory and practice of poverty and social exclusion measurement in Hong Kong. By adapting the UK Poverty and Social Exclusion Study 2012 to the Hong Kong context, the article reports on public perceptions of the necessities of life and understanding of social exclusion. The study found a strong social consensus about what items and activities constitute an acceptable standard of living in Hong Kong. Furthermore, whilst social exclusion was an unfamiliar concept, participants were able identify and explain experiences such as discrimination (affecting new arrivals), geographical isolation, a culture of long-working hours and poor access to health services as key elements.

This study offers a new methodology to measure female disempowerment, where such individuals are denied the liberty of making fundamental life choices, with techniques that have been developed exclusively to measure social deprivation. These multidimensional indicators have been applied to calculate statistics in India at state, regional and national levels, and have provided quantifiable statistics with which to assess regional diversity in gender equity in India. Further, the decomposability property of these indicators have allowed for the identification of those regions (or states) and decisions categories that have contributed more than others to the total disempowerment of women.

The measurement of poverty as ‘consistent’ poverty offers a solution to one of the primary problems of poverty measurement within Social Policy of the last three decades. Often treated as if they were synonymous, ‘indirect’ measures of poverty, such as low income measures, and ‘direct’ measures, such as indices of material deprivation, identify surprisingly different people as being poor. In response to this mismatch, a team of Irish researchers put forward a measure which identified respondents in as being in poverty when they experienced both a low standard of living, as measured by deprivation indicators, and a lack of resources, as measured by a low income line. Importantly, they argued that the two measures required an equal weight. In this paper, I present a reconsideration of the consistent poverty measure from both conceptual and empirical perspectives. In particular, I examine the claim that low income and material deprivation measures should be given an ‘equal weight’. I argue that, from a conceptual perspective, the nature of the indicators at hand means that a deprivation-led measurement approach might be understood to align with the definition of poverty which Nolan and Whelan outline and, from an empirical perspective, that it is the material deprivation measure—and not the low income measure—which is particularly effective in identifying individuals at risk of multiple forms of deprivation. However, I argue that greater attention needs to be given to the question of whether indicators of material deprivation provide a sufficient measure of material poverty and suggest that advancing the measurement of material deprivation beyond its relatively rudimentary state represents an important priority for poverty research.

Contains fulltext : 126422.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) In this study, we investigate to what extent macro-economic circumstances and social protection expenditure affect economic deprivation. We use three items from round five of the European Social Survey (2010-2011) to construct our latent outcome variable, which we label economic deprivation in the 3 years before 2010-2011. The results of our linear multilevel regression analyses indicate that in countries that perform worse economically, individual experiences of economic deprivation are more prevalent: the stronger the rise in the unemployment rate and the lower a country's wealth, the more economic deprivation individuals experience. We also find that in countries with high levels of social protection, people experience less economic deprivation as compared to countries with low levels of social protection. In turn, adverse economic conditions in a country temper these positive outcomes of social welfare arrangements. Finally, our study reveals that the strength of the relationship between a low income and economic deprivation strongly varies according to the economic circumstances in a country and the generosity of the welfare state.

This paper considers different ways of making comparisons between individuals in terms of deprivation and/or satisfaction. This allows the Gini index, the Bonferroni index and the De Vergottini index to be interpreted as social deprivation measures as well as social satisfaction measures. The inequality measures that belong to the β family, or linear combinations of them, are obtained when using different weighting schemes to average the deprivation and satisfaction associated with each income level. Particularly, the generalised Gini indices (Yitzhaki, Int Econ Rev 24:617–628 in 1983), the indices proposed by Aaberge (J Econ Inequal 5(3):305–322, 2007) or those proposed by Imedio-Olmedo et al. (J Public Econ Theory 13(1):97–124, 2011) can be used to evaluate social deprivation or social satisfaction in an income distribution.

Although homelessness is inherently associated with social exclusion, homeless individuals are rarely included in conventional studies on social exclusion. Use of longitudinal survey data from a cohort study on homeless people in four major Dutch cities (n = 378) allowed to examine: changes in indicators of social exclusion among homeless people over a 2.5-year period after reporting to the social relief system, and associations between changes in indicators of social exclusion and changes in psychological distress. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was applied to investigate the associations between changes in indicators of social exclusion and changes in psychological distress. Improvements were found in various indicators of social exclusion, whereas financial debts showed no significant improvement. Changes in unmet care needs, health insurance, social support from family and relatedness to others were related to changes in psychological distress. This study demonstrated improvements in various indicators of social exclusion among homeless people over a period of 2.5 years, and sheds light on the concept of social exclusion in relation to homelessness.