Income, health and health care utilization in the UK

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse the links between income, health and health care utilisation behaviour using longitudinal data from the British Household Panel Survey. The emphasis is to frame the analysis as a social phenomenon, so that the dynamics of individual health production in the social context can be understood. The study estimates the relationships between income, health and health care utilisation with lag effects. The empirical results support the hypothesis that these three variables influence each other with lag effects and that many social and economic factors influence an individual's probability of having a health problem or making use of health care facilities, even when such facilities are free at the point of use.