New book: Khattab et al, Socioeconomic Inequality in Israel

Khattab, Nabil, Sami Miaari, and Haya Stier, eds. Socioeconomic Inequality in Israel. A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

 

 

This volume addresses different aspects and areas of inequality in Israel, a country characterized by high levels of economic inequality, poverty, and social diversity. The book expands on the mechanisms that produce and maintain inequality, and the role of state policies in influencing those mechanisms.

 

Table of Contents

The Correlates of Household Debt in Late Life
Lewin-Epstein, Noah (et al.)
Pages 13-40

Household Inequality and the Contribution of Spousal Correlations
Plaut, Pnina O. (et al.)
Pages 41-57

Religious Schooling, Secular Schooling, and Household Income Inequality in Israel
Kimhi, Ayal (et al.)
Pages 59-72

First-Generation College Students in an Expanded and Diversified Higher Education System: The Case of Israel
Ayalon, Hanna (et al.)
Pages 75-96

Ethno-Religious Hierarchy in Educational Achievement and Socioeconomic Status in Israel: A Historical Perspective
Friedlander, Dov (et al.)
Pages 97-121

Overqualification and Wage Penalties among Immigrants, Native Minorities, and Majority Ethnic Groups
Khattab, Nabil (et al.)
Pages 123-149

The Gender Revolution in Israel: Progress and Stagnation
Mandel, Hadas (et al.)
Pages 153-184

Gender Earnings Gaps in Ethnic and Religious Groups in Israel
Kraus, Vered (et al.)
Pages 185-204

The Role of Peripheriality and Ethnic Segregation in Arabs’ Integration into the Israeli Labor Market
Schnell, Izhak (et al.)
Pages 207-224

Horizontal Inequality in Israel’s Welfare State: Do Arab Citizens Receive Fewer Transfer Payments?
Shalev, Michael (et al.)
Pages 225-252

 

New Article: Ben-Shahar & Warszawski, Inequality in Housing Affordability

Ben-Shahar, Danny, and Jacob Warszawski. “Inequality in Housing Affordability: Measurement and Estimation.” Urban Studies 53.6 (2016): 1178-1202.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0042098015572529

 

Abstract

This research proposes and examines a new measure for assessing the state of housing affordability inequality. We employ a large micro-level data set by which we estimate and evaluate the time-varying housing affordability inequality in Israel over the period 1992–2011. Results show that our developed housing affordability inequality Gini coefficient has considerably increased in the past decade. Moreover, controlling for changes in net income inequality and macroeconomic conditions, housing affordability inequality is found to positively correlate with average housing prices (computed in net income terms). Outcomes are robust to the alternative Atkinson inequality index. Furthermore, our method allows for an examination of segmentation in housing affordability. We find that segmentation particularly prevails across household head’s gender, family status, working status, the number of income providers in the household and household geographical residence. Research outcomes may direct policymakers in designing policies aiming to reduce inequality and segmentation in housing affordability.

 

 

 

ToC: International Journal of Educational Research 76 (2016); special section on Arabs in Israel

International Journal of Education Research 76 (2016)

Special section on Higher Education in a Transforming Society: The Case of Arabs in Israel; Guest edited by Hanoch Flum and Avi Kaplan

 

Higher education in a transforming society: The case of Arabs in Israel
Pages 89-95
Hanoch Flum, Avi Kaplan

Access to higher education and its socio-economic impact among Bedouin Arabs in Southern Israel
Pages 96-103
Ismael Abu-Saad

English as a gatekeeper: Inequality between Jews and Arabs in access to higher education in Israel
Pages 104-111
Yariv Feniger, Hanna Ayalon

On the meaning of higher education for transition to modernity youth: Lessons from future orientation research of Muslim girls in Israel
Pages 112-119
Rachel Seginer, Sami Mahajna

The paths of ‘return’: Palestinian Israeli women negotiate family and career after the university
Pages 120-128
Lauren Erdreich

The conception of work and higher education among Israeli Arab women
Pages 129-140
Rachel Gali Cinamon, Halah Habayib, Margalit Ziv

Higher education among minorities: The Arab case
Pages 141-146
Alean Al-Krenawi

Lecture: Goldscheider, Ethnic and Religious Diversity in Israel (Berkeley, Feb 4, 2016)

 

Thursday, February 4

PUBLIC LECTURE ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY IN ISRAEL: Changes, Inequality and the Quality of Life Calvin Goldscheider Ungerleider Professor Emeritus of Judaic Studies & Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Brown University 5:30 PM Reception, 6 PM Lecture Warren Room, 295 Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley Please RSVP Here

New Article: Guetzkow & Fast, Symbolic Boundaries and Social Exclusion: A Comparison of Arab Palestinian Citizens and Ethiopian Jews

Guetzkow, Josh, and Idit Fast. “How Symbolic Boundaries Shape the Experience of Social Exclusion. A Case Comparison of Arab Palestinian Citizens and Ethiopian Jews in Israel.” American Behavioral Scientist (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0002764215607581

 

Abstract

Symbolic boundaries, understood as the conceptual distinctions used to demarcate in-groups and out-groups, are fundamental to social inequality. While we know a great deal about how groups and individuals construct and contest symbolic boundaries along lines of class, race, ethnicity, religion, and nationality, less attention is given to (a) national belonging as a component of symbolic boundaries distinct from citizenship and (b) comparing how distinct symbolic boundaries shape individuals perceptions of, and reactions to, instances of stigmatization and discrimination. To examine these issues we compared two marginalized groups in Israel, Arab Palestinian citizens and Ethiopian Jewish immigrants. Analyzing 90 in-depth interviews, we find that exclusion based on boundaries of nationality engenders different ways of interpretating and responding to stigmatizing and discriminatory behavior, compared with exclusion based on racial and ethnic boundaries. While Ethiopians see everyday stigmatizing encounters as part of their temporary position as a recently immigrated group from a developing country, and react accordingly with attempts to prove their worth as individuals and ultimately assimilate, Palestinians view the line between them and the Jewish majority as relatively impermeable and attempts to fully integrate as mostly useless, viewing solidarity and education as a means to improve their group’s standing.

 

 

New Article: Yitzhak-Sade et al, Ethnicity and Immunization Coverage among Schools in Israel

Yitshak-Sade, Maayan, Nadav Davidovitch, Lena Novack, and Itamar Grotto. “Ethnicity and Immunization Coverage among Schools in Israel.” Ethnicity & Health (early view; online first).

 

URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13557858.2015.1068281

 

Abstract
Objective. Recent years have seen a global trend of declining immunization rates of recommended vaccines that is more pronounced among school-age children. Ethnic disparities in child immunization rates have been reported in several countries. We investigated an effect of ethnicity on the vaccination rates of immunizations routinely administered within schools in Israel. Design. Data were collected from the Ministry of Health database regarding immunization coverage for all registered Israeli schools (3736) in the years 2009–2011. Negative binomial regression was used to assess the association between school ethnicity and immunization coverage while controlling for school characteristics. Results. The lowest immunization coverage was found in Bedouin schools (median values of 75.1%, 81.5% and 0% for the first, second and eighth grades, respectively) in 2011. During this year, vaccination coverage in the first and second grades in Jewish schools was 1.51 and 1.35 times higher, respectively, compared to Bedouin schools. In the years 2009 and 2010, no significant increase in risk for lower vaccination rate was observed in Bedouin schools, and children in Arab and Druze schools were more likely to have been vaccinated. Conclusion. The lower vaccination refusal rate found in Bedouin schools supports the hypothesis that difficulties related to accessibility constitute the main problem rather than noncompliance with the recommended vaccination protocol for school-age children, featuring higher socio-economic status groups. Our study emphasizes the importance of identifying, beyond the national-level data, subpopulation groups at risk for non-vaccination. This knowledge is essential to administrative-level policy-makers for the allocation of resources and the planning of intervention programs.

 

 

Exchange: Robert Cherry comments on Shalhoub-Kevorkian’s et al, Bedouin Women and Political Economy in the Negev

Cherry, Robrt. “Comment on ‘Funding Pain: Bedouin Women and Political Economy in the Naqab/Negev’.” Feminist Economics 21.4 (2015): 197-200.

 
URL: http://dx.doi.org/13545701.2015.1074263
 
Extract

This is a response to claims made by Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Antonina Griecci Woodsum, Himmat Zu’bi, and Rachel Busbridge in this journal that patriarchal constraints have little to do with the low employment rates of Bedouin women and that their communities suffer from sustained government neglect.

 

 

 

New Article: Strier, Fathers in Israel

Strier, Roni. “Fathers in Israel: Contextualizing Images of Fatherhood.” In Fathers Across Cultures: The Importance, Roles, and Diverse Practices of Dads (ed. Jaipaul L. Roopnarine; Santa Barbara, Calif.: Praeger, 2015): 350-67.

 

Extract

Walking the Israeli fatherhood labyrinth means rediscovering fatherhood as a highly changing and multifaceted construction. The Israeli case confirms the dynamic nature of fatherhood. Fatherhood trajectories (Zionist, ultra-Orthodox, and Immigrant Jewish, as well as Palestinian) already reviewed help us disclose the fluctuating character of fatherhood as a historical, cultural, and class-based construction. The Israeli case also questions the validity of a possible essential Israeli fatherhood and suggests the need to discuss changing fatherhoods in Israel – fatherhood as facing shared processes (westernization, familism, growing inequalities, and national conflict) and huge divides.
Of equal importance is the recognition of the complexity of the fatherhood experience as a multilayered phenomenon in which gendered images of masculinity interact with changing views of fatherhood. The Israeli case study presents fatherhood as a puzzle of internal tensions and external constraints. This frame helps us to acknowledge the contributions and shortfalls of the nation-state to grasp the changing and dynamic nature of fatherhood as a historical construction. finally, the Israeli case calls on fatherhood scholars to keep examining the impact of war and political violence on the well-being of fathers and families. In a more broad, global scope, the experience of fatherhood in Israel should call for a new discourse of fatherhood that includes the respect for human rights, the repudiation of any form of violence and injustice, and the pursue of political goals through nonviolent means.

 

 

New Article: Yirmiyahu et al, Does Accessibility to Higher Education Reduce Wage Inequality?

Yirmiyahu, Albert, Ofir D. Rubin, and Miki Malul. “Does Greater Accessibility to Higher Education Reduce Wage Inequality? The Case of the Arab Minority in Israel.” Studies in Higher Education (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2015.1076781

 

Abstract

Many studies assessing national policy reforms in education focus on the likelihood of acquiring an advanced education and the associated returns in the labor market. In this paper, the authors investigate the impact of the Israeli Academic Colleges Law that was designed to promote the acquisition of higher education among all segments of the Israeli population. They found that this law, in fact, contributed to making higher education accessible more to the Israeli Arab minority than to the rest of the population. In addition, they demonstrate that the influence of the law on improving access to higher education is reflected in the increase in the earning potential of Israeli Arabs.

 

 

New Article: Schmittdiel, Patient-Centered Health Care Systems to Improve Outcomes and Reduce Disparities

Schmittdiel, Julie A. “Creating Patient-Centered Health Care Systems to Improve Outcomes and Reduce Disparities.” Israeli Journal of Health Policy Research 42 (2015).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13584-015-0039-2

 

Abstract
Health care delivery systems that are designed to understand and meet patient preferences for care have the potential to improve health outcomes and reduce disparities. Studies that rigorously assess patient care preferences in minority and underserved populations, stakeholder engagement, and policies that promote a diverse health care workforce that can address patient preferences are important levers for improving care for vulnerable populations.

 

 

Conference: Reinventing Israel. Transformations of Israeli Society in the 21st Century (American U, Washington, Oct 28-29, 2015)

For full program [PDF], click here.

Please Join The Center for Israel Studies and Jewish Studies Program next week for our Reinventing Israel conference!
FREE WITH RSVP (by session).

Featured presentations include:
“From BG to Bibi: The End of an Era in Israel-Diaspora Relations?” by David Ellenson 
Wednesday, October 28, 7:30 PM 
Keynote address to kick off “Reinventing Israel: Transformations of Israeli Society in the 21st Century” conference.  Ellenson is director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University and Chancellor Emeritus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
Location: SIS Building Abramson Family Founders Room.  (Free parking in SIS Building garage)   

“Reinventing Israel: Transformations of Israeli Society in the 21^st Century” conference featuring international scholars and AU faculty 
Thursday, October 29, all-day 
Sessions featuring History and Memory, Economy and Hi-Tech, Politics and Law, Religion and Ethnicity.  
Location: Butler Board Room (Floor 6 of Butler Pavilion).
Pre-paid parking by kiosk (on level P-1 by elevator – note parking space number) in Katzen Arts Center or SIS Building Garage (free after 5:00 PM).   

Imagining Israel in 2035 – Different Visions 
Thursday, October 29 7:30 PM   
With Fania Oz-Salzberger (University of Haifa) Mohammed Wattad (Zefat College, UC Irvine) James Loeffler (University of Virginia) Moderator: Michael Brenner (AU). 
Location: Butler Board Room.  Free parking after 5:00 PM in all university parking garages.   

New Book: Goldscheider, Israeli Society in the Twenty-First Century

Goldscheider, Calvin. Israeli Society in the Twenty-First Century. Immigration, Inequality, and Religious Conflict, Schusterman Series in Israel Studies. Lebanon, NH: Brandeis University Press (imprint of University Press of New England), 2015.

This volume illuminates changes in Israeli society over the past generation. Goldscheider identifies three key social changes that have led to the transformation of Israeli society in the twenty-first century: the massive immigration of Jews from the former Soviet Union, the economic shift to a high-tech economy, and the growth of socioeconomic inequalities inside Israel. To deepen his analysis of these developments, Goldscheider focuses on ethnicity, religion, and gender, including the growth of ethnic pluralism in Israel, the strengthening of the Ultra-Orthodox community, the changing nature of religious Zionism and secularism, shifts in family patterns, and new issues and challenges between Palestinians and Arab Israelis given the stalemate in the peace process and the expansions of Jewish settlements.

Combining demography and social structural analysis, the author draws on the most recent data available from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics and other sources to offer scholars and students an innovative guide to thinking about the Israel of the future.

This book will be of interest to scholars and students of contemporary Israel, the Middle East, sociology, demography and economic development, as well as policy specialists in these fields. It will serve as a textbook for courses in Israeli history and in the modern Middle East.

Table of Contents

• List of Tables and Figure
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Nation-Building, Population, and Development
• Ethnic Diversity Jewish and Arab Populations of Israel
• Immigration, Nation-Building, and Ethnic-Group Formation
• Arab Israelis Demography, Dependency, and Distinctiveness
• Urbanization, Residential Integration, and Communities
• Religiosity, Religious Institutions, and Israeli Culture
• Inequality and Changing Gender Roles
• Education, Stratification, and Inequality
• Inequality and Mortality Decline
• Family Formation and Generational Continuities
• Emergent Israeli Society Nation-Building, Inequalities, and Continuities
• Appendix: Data Sources and Reliability
• Bibliography
• Index

New Article: Ben-Moshe, Disability and Anti-Occupation Activism in Israel

Ben-Moshe, Liat. “Movements at War? Disability and Anti-Occupation Activism in Israel.” In Occupying Disability. Critical Approaches to Community, Justice, and Decolonizing Disability (ed. Pamela Block et al.; Dordrecht and New York: Springer, 2016): 47-61.

 

 

Abstract

At the time of the first major disability protest in Israel in 1999 and then in 2000-2001, there were already many anti-occupation and peace organizations at play in Israel/Palestine. While participating in this budding disability movement, I began reflecting on my experiences of simultaneously being an Israeli anti-occupation activist and disabled activist publically fighting for the first time for disability rights. In the summer of 2006 I conducted research in Israel, trying to assess any changes that occurred since 2000 in the connections between the movements and within the disability movement itself. And then the war on Lebanon began. My intention in writing this chapter is to highlight the connections between disability activism and anti-war and anti-occupation activism, which seems to be at war with one another but in fact intersect in important ways. I hope this narrative and analysis will be useful for material resistance as well as a reflection on our current states of exclusion in activism and scholarship.

 

 

New Article: Gross-Manos, Material Deprivation and Social Exclusion of Children

Gross-Manos, Daphna. “Material Deprivation and Social Exclusion of Children: Lessons from Measurement Attempts among Children in Israel.” Journal of Social Policy 44.1 (2015): 105-25.

 
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0047279414000646

 

Abstract
Measuring child poverty using a ‘poverty threshold’ has many drawbacks. Thus, this study sought to develop two alternative measures, a material deprivation index and a social exclusion measure. These new measures were developed and tested using data from the first wave of the International Survey of Children’s Well-Being in Israel among twelve-year-olds. The results show it is possible to develop child-centered material deprivation and social exclusion measures that are valid and reliable. The measures can help policy makers decide on priorities and create policies that better meet the needs of children.

 
 

 

 

New Article: Popper-Giveon & Keshet, Choice of a Medical Career Among the Arab Minority in Israel

Popper-Giveon, Ariela, and Yael Keshet. “‘It’s Every Family’s Dream’: Choice of a Medical Career Among the Arab Minority in Israel.” Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10903-015-0252-7

 

Abstract
Application to medical studies and the choice of medicine as a career are influenced by many factors, some internal (academic ability, intellectual curiosity, interests) and some external (parental pressure, peer pressure, teacher and school expectations). Ethnicity plays a role in motivational orientation and belonging to an ethnic minority group may influence both internal and external motives and priorities in choosing medicine as a career. In this article, we present a qualitative study of the motives that impel Arab physicians in Israel to choose a medical career. As a theoretical framework, we apply self-determination theory (SDT) (Ryan and Deci in Am Psychol 55:68–78, 2000), consisting of three principal categories situated along a continuum: Amotivation, extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. We show that extrinsic motivation is dominant among Arab physicians in Israel, demonstrating specifically the unique political context and cultural characteristics of Arab society in Israel. These findings, and the attention to the unique motivations of people from different ethnic minority groups who choose medical career, may increase the number of physicians from minority groups, a step known to decrease health gaps in multi-cultural contexts.

 

 

New Article: Moor et al, Social Inequalities in Adolescent Health Complaints

Moor, Irene, Matthias Richter, Ulrike Ravens-Sieberer, Veronika Ottová-Jordan, Frank J. Elgar, Timo-Kolja Pförtner. “Trends in Social Inequalities in Adolescent Health Complaints from 1994 to 2010 in Europe, North America and Israel: The HBSC Study.” European Journal of Public Health (early view online first).

 
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckv028

 

Abstract
Background: Studies have shown constant or increasing health inequalities in adulthood in the last decades, but less is known about trends in health inequalities among adolescents. The aim is to analyse changes in socioeconomic differences in subjective health complaints from 1994 to 2010 among 11- to 15-year-olds in Europe, North America and Israel. Methods: Data were obtained from the international ‘Health Behaviour in School-aged Children’ (HBSC) survey. Analyses were based on the HBSC surveys conducted in 1994 (19 countries), 1998 (25 countries), 2002 (32 countries), 2006 (37 countries) and 2010 (36 countries) covering a time period of up to 16 years. Log binomial regression models were used to assess inequalities in multiple health complaints. Socioeconomic position was measured using perceived family wealth. Results: Inequalities in multiple health complaints emerged in almost all countries, in particular since 2002 (RR 1.1–1.7). Trend analyses showed stable (29 countries), increased (5 countries), decreased (one country) and no social inequalities (2 countries) in adolescent health complaints. Conclusion: In almost all countries, social inequalities in health complaints remained constant over a period of up to 16 years. Our findings suggest a need to intensify efforts in social and health policy to tackle existing inequalities.

 

 

 

Dissertation: Doron, The Impact of Social Housing on the Empowerment of the Poor in Israel

Doron, Guy. Is Empowerment of Disadvantaged Populations Achievable through Housing Policies? A Study of the Impact of Social Housing on the Empowerment of the Poor in Israel, PhD Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2015.

 
URL: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.647167

 

Abstract
This research project investigates whether the empowerment of Israel’s population — and in particular those who suffer multiple disadvantages — is achievable through housing policies and whether successive Israeli administrations have helped or hindered this process. The research focuses on communities in publicly-subsidised areas during social housing programmes. The housing programmes analysed in this research were: The Demolish and Rebuild Programme, which represents a top-down process, implemented with little residents’ involvement. Neighbourhood Renewal, which was a programme that formally offered partnership, giving residents partial share in decision-making. Finally, Right to Buy represented a resident-led partnership, in which residents felt empowered to overcome their own disadvantaged conditions by taking a leading role in transforming housing policy. The database complementing this research was compiled, in part, from 91 in-depth interviews with residents, policy makers and officials representing these three programmes. It is a unique aspect of this research, as it draws on perspectives about participation from those who have not necessarily had an opportunity to express an opinion before, and communicates a variety of views regarding the projects and residents’ participation in them. This study focuses on how it actually affects people and can even create behavioural change among those who are normally considered dependent. Another exceptional and distinctive factor provided by this research is its analysis of empowerment in the social and political context of Israel. By analysing the Israeli case, this research will contribute both to international knowledge and academic scholarship, highlight the conditions of an individual state and generate an original and provocative narrative. The issue of participation and empowerment in a society so riven with political, social, religious and ethnic tensions is particularly important. Learning from the Israeli experience has the potential to promote understanding of empowerment under pressure. Empowerment related to social housing policy is distinctive in Israel because housing is synonymous with security. Housing is more than a cultural issue, since in Israel owning a property is a matter of security. Another key feature is the focal role of central government which determines almost every aspect in the shaping of social and housing policy. Also critical is the influence of national politics on local decision-making. In Israel the political agenda is based upon bilateralism and the demographic dispersal of population across the state’s formal and informal borders. Empowerment is a complex term. This research, however, explores examined and evidenced empowerment using just two main features: examination of residents’ participation; and evaluation of public policy towards resident participation. This research offers a unique view on empowerment within social housing policies that are subject to multiple pressures, and offers interpretations that could be usefully applied to issues of empowerment in other pressure scenarios.

 

 

 

New Article: Yonay et al, The Impact of Christian Neighbors on Muslim and Druze Women’s Participation in the Labor Force

Yonay, Yuval P., Mair Yaish, and Vered Kraus. “Religious Heterogeneity and Cultural Diffusion: The Impact of Christian Neighbors on Muslim and Druze Women’s Participation in the Labor Force in Israel.” Sociology 49.4 (2015): 660-78.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038038514547898

 

Abstract

This study exploits the unique demographic structure of the Arab-Palestinian minority in Israel and their geographical immobility in order to help resolve the riddle why women in the Middle East and North Africa are less likely to participate in the labor force than women elsewhere in the world. We show that, controlling for economic variables, Muslim and Druze Arab women are more likely to enter the labor force if they live in a locality where Christian Arabs live as well. A possible explanation of this finding is the impact of social interaction among people who have different cultural schemas. Female labor force participation is rising throughout the Middle East, including among Arab-Palestinians in Israel, but the tempo of this transformation depends on various local variables, and in this article we identify one such factor, namely, the ethno-religious composition of a community.

 

Report: A Picture of the Nation, 2015; Taub Center for Social Policy

The Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel Presents:

A Picture of the Nation: Israel’s Society and Economy in Figures, one of the Center’s most popular publications, provides concise and thought-provoking information on Israel’s long-run economic and social trajectories.  Each page of this booklet contains a single graph and short, accompanying text that, when combined, provide the reader with a broad and comprehensive understanding of key socioeconomic issues in Israel today.  Policy makers, the media, the general public, and the global Jewish community look to the Picture of the Nation as an invaluable and highly accessible resource on topics ranging from the labor market to education, poverty and much more.

For the English page, including PDF and PPT versions of the report, as well as previous reports (2002-2014), click here.

For the Hebrew page, click here.

PDF version in English: Picture of the Nation, 2015.

PDF version in Hebrew: תמונת מצב המדינה, 2015.

New Article: Merkin et al, Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status and Self-Rated Health in Israel

Merkin, Sharon Stein, Hadar Arditi-Babchuk, and Tamy Shohat. “Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status and Self-Rated Health in Israel: The Israel National Health Interview Survey.” International Journal of Public Health 60.6 (2015): 651-8.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00038-015-0705-8

 

Abstract

Objectives
To explore neighborhood socioeconomic status (NSES) differentials in self-rated health (SRH) in Israel.

Methods
Study sample included 6296 Jewish participants in the Israeli National Health Interview Survey of 2007–2008. Neighborhoods were assigned socioeconomic scores by the Central Bureau of Statistics, incorporating 16 demographic and socioeconomic measures using a 20-point scale. Generalized estimating equation models with a multinomial distribution assessed the relative cumulative odds for decreasing SRH by quartiles of NSES, while accounting for neighborhood clustering. Base models were adjusted for age, religiosity, immigration from the former Soviet Union, education, income, and then additionally for employment, living in the periphery and co-morbidity.

Results
We found a strong association between poor SRH and living in disadvantaged neighborhoods, after adjusting for individual-level SES. The combination of living in deprived areas with below average income was associated with over twice the risk of poor SRH.

Conclusions
The association between low NSES and worsening SRH, exacerbated by lower income, highlights the importance of considering socioeconomic environmental and individual conditions in targeting high-risk populations.