A three-stage approach to measuring health inequalities and inequities

Table 4 Univariate inequality, univariate inequity, and bivariate inequities

	Univariate inequality	Univariate inequity
	Observed HUI	Equal opportunity for health	Policy amenability
Mean HUI (95% CI)	0.889 (0.883, 0.896)	0.878 (0.871, 0.884)	0.873 (0.866, 0.879)
Gini coefficient (95% CI)	0.085 (0.080, 0.091)	0.092 (0.086, 0.097)	0.086 (0.080, 0.092)
Expected mean difference in HUI	0.151	0.162	0.150
Decomposition (%)
Unexplained variation		85.20	82.44
Ethically and policy relevant attribute
Income		6.52	1.35
Education		0.47	0.97
Sex		0.27	0.16
Race		0.06	0.01
Fleurbaey-Schokkaert category
Health endowments		0.00	0.00
Individual preferences		0.00	6.92
Available information		0.47	0.97
Social background		7.80	2.52
Health care supply		6.54	7.17

Data source: Joint Canada/United States Survey of Health (JCUSH).
HUI: Health Utilities Index.
Expected mean difference in HUI between two randomly selected persons in the population is twice the value of the Gini coefficient of the mean HUI.
Analysis is weighted. Standard errors are adjusted for the complex survey design.
The mean HUIs for the three distributions above are the same without weighting (data not shown) but different after weighting as seen above.

ISSN: 1475-9276