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Equity in Health and Social Care*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Maria Evandrou ,
Jane Falkingham ,
Julian Le Grand  and
David Winter
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Abstract

This paper studies equity in the distribution of primary health care and domiciliary care for elderly people. The main data source is the 1980 GHS which has been linked to local authority data. An equitably distributed service is defined as one in which only variables which measure respondent's need for the service provide a significant explanation of whether the respondent receives the service. In the case of primary health care we find that for a number of groups defined by gender and age, economic and demographic variables have significant explanatory power. For two groups (males under 41 and females between 40 and 60), need was the only significant variable. For domiciliary care not only are variables which relate to the respondent's demographic and economic status significant but also variables which are concerned with local authorities' policies concerning supply. In general neither service is distributed equitably in the sense defined.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , October 1992 , pp. 489 - 523
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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