Explaining mental health inequalities in Northern Sweden: a decomposition analysis

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive statistics of the study population and proportions of poor mental health.

	Variable frequencies		Prevalence of poor mental health
	N	%	N	%
GHQ-12
Good	22,084	86.1	3562	13.9
Sex
Men	1184	46.2	1319	11.1
Women	13,806	53.8	2243	16.3
Age
16–29 years	4173	16.3	877	21.0
30–44 years	5072	19.8	905	17.8
45–64 years	739	28.8	972	13.2
65–84 years	9011	35.1	808	9.0
Education
Low	12,532	50.1	1571	12.5
Medium	8311	33.3	1228	14.8
High	4154	16.6	636	15.3
Civil status
Married/cohabiting	17,685	69.0	2188	12.4
Single	5054	19.7	991	19.6
Divorced	1555	6.1	240	15.4
Widower	1352	5.3	143	10.6
Ethnicity
Swedish	23,955	93.4	3273	13.7
Non-Swedish	1691	6.6	289	17.1
Municipality of residence
More than 50,000 inhabitants with hospital	6231	24.3	935	15.0
10,000–50,000 inhabitants with hospital	4928	19.2	618	12.5
10,000–50,000 inhabitants without hospital	4407	17.2	653	14.8
Fewer than 10,000 inhabitants without hospital	1008	39.3	1356	13.5
Income (quintile)
1 (poorest)	5113	20.0	959	18.8
2	5113	20.0	750	14.7
3	5113	20.0	707	13.8
4	5113	20.0	656	12.8
5 (richest)	5113	20.0	471	9.2
Cash margin
Yes	21,204	83.4	2431	11.5
No	4217	16.6	1099	26.1
Employment status
Working	11,561	45.1	1385	12.0
Studying	1943	7.6	438	22.5
Sick pensioner/long-term sick leave	1168	4.6	402	34.4
Unemployed	967	3.8	257	26.6
Pensioner	7239	28.2	640	8.8
Other	2768	10.8	440	15.9
Violence
Yes	1021	4.0	334	32.7
No	24,625	96.0	3228	13.1
Emotional support
Yes	22,244	89.2	2702	12.2
No	2692	10.8	745	27.7
Perceived discrimination
Yes	4026	15.7	1338	33.2
No	2162	84.3	2224	10.3

Figure 1. Concentration curve (C = −0.15, 95% C.I: −0.17 to −0.13).

Table 2. Summary of results of decomposition analysis.

	Coeff.	Elast.	C	Cont. to C	%	Adjusted % contribution
Sex
Men
Women	0.03	0.291	−0.038	−0.011	7.4	6.0
Age
16–29 years
30–44 years	0.000	0.001	0.219	0.000	−0.1
45–64 years	−0.034	−0.071	0.295	−0.021	13.9	11.3
65–84 years	−0.072	−0.183	−0.128	0.023	−15.6
Education
Low	−0.032	−0.115	−0.148	0.017	−11.4
Medium	−0.019	−0.046	0.080	−0.004	2.4	2.0
High
Civil status
Married/cohabiting
Single	−0.009	−0.013	−0.333	0.004	−2.8
Divorced	0.007	0.003	0.013	0.000	0.0
Widower	0.006	0.002	−0.160	0.000	0.2
Ethnicity
Swedish
Non-Swedish	−0.011	−0.081	−0.010	0.001	−0.5
Municipality of residence
More than 50,000 inhabitants with hospital
10,000–50,000 inhabitants with hospital	−0.022	−0.030	0.049	−0.001	1.0	0.8
10,000–50,000 inhabitants without hospital	−0.005	−0.006	−0.009	0.000	0.0
Fewer than 10,000 inhabitants without hospital	−0.017	−0.049	−0.053	0.003	−1.7
Income (quintile)
1	0.025	0.035	−0.798	−0.028	18.8	15.3
2	0.024	0.034	−0.399	−0.014	9.0	7.3
3	0.021	0.030	−1.5E-09	0.000	0.0
4	0.017	0.025	0.399	0.010	−6.6
5
Cash margin
Yes
No	0.065	0.078	−0.333	−0.026	17.3	14.0
Employment status
Working
Studying	0.047	0.025	−0.664	−0.017	11.3	9.2
Sick pensioner/long-term sick leave	0.202	0.066	−0.173	−0.011	7.6	6.2
Unemployed	0.084	0.023	−0.371	−0.008	5.7	4.6
Pensioner	0.044	0.090	−0.137	−0.012	8.3	6.7
Other	0.044	0.034	−0.231	−0.008	5.3	4.3
Violence
Yes	0.049	0.014	−0.080	−0.001	0.8	0.6
No
Emotional support
Yes
No	0.089	0.711	−0.009	−0.006	4.2	3.4
Perceived discrimination
Yes	0.152	0.172	−0.086	−0.015	9.9	8.0
No
Concentration index (C)				−0.150
Standard error (s.e)				0.010
Residual				−0.024
95% confidence interval (C.I)	(−0.170 to −0.130)

Notes: Bold indicates p < 0.01, italics indicate 0.01 ≤ p < 0.05. Coeff.: coefficient; Elast.: elasticity; C: concentration index; Cont. to C: contribution to concentration index; %: percentage contribution.