What does Eurostat's Labour Force Survey say about health and health inequalities in the European Union?

This publication presents extensive analysis of newly available data from Eurostat’s Labour Force Survey (LFS) to measure health and socioeconomic inequalities in health in 25 European countries, in a period including 1983–2004 at most. The study first defined several, predominantly labour market-related health indicators plus one weighted, overall health index. The authors documented the limitations of using this information for the measurement of average national health status, and focused on the use of the health information for the assessment of socioeconomic inequalities in health. Standard concentration indices were calculated using five different proxies for socioeconomic status. After decomposing the inequality data into its trend and seasonal component, health inequalities were found to have been increasing for most but by no means all countries and health indicators. These results do not appear to be sensitive to the various proxies for socioeconomic status employed. Overall, while not without problems, the LFS may well add a useful and hitherto unexploited resource for measuring socioeconomic inequalities in health across European countries and over time.