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Associations of relative income deprivation with perceived happiness and self-rated health among the Hong Kong Chinese population

  • Original Article
  • Published:
International Journal of Public Health

Abstract

Objectives

To investigate the association of relative income deprivation (RID) with perceived happiness and self-rated health in Hong Kong.

Methods

We measured RID on Yitzhaki indices constructed using multiple reference groups and used multilevel ordinal logistic regression models to assess its linkages with the two outcomes, using data from 6272 respondents from a large-scale representative household survey.

Results

Among the overall population, increased RID was found to be consistently associated with reduced perceived happiness, even after adjusting for respondents’ level of absolute income and other socio-demographic covariates; however, there were no consistent associations between RID and self-rated health. In subgroup analysis, we observed significant linkages between RID and self-rated health only among men, the middle and older age ranges, and among those with less education and those not engaged in economic activities.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that RID is adversely associated with perceived happiness. However, its negative linkage with self-rated health is less clear. The weak tie between RID and self-rated health may relate to the Hong Kong context, where the public health system is relatively equitable and has multiple pro-poor health policies.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Chief Executive’s Community Projects, The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust (Project Number: 2013/CP03).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Chee Hon Chan & Paul Siu Fai Yip

  2. Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Chee Hon Chan, Ho Kit Wong & Paul Siu Fai Yip

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  1. Chee Hon Chan
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  2. Ho Kit Wong
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  3. Paul Siu Fai Yip
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Correspondence to Paul Siu Fai Yip.

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Research ethics

Ethical approval was obtained from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong (Ref No. HKUST-6001-SPPR-08).

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Chan, C.H., Wong, H.K. & Yip, P.S.F. Associations of relative income deprivation with perceived happiness and self-rated health among the Hong Kong Chinese population. Int J Public Health 62, 697–707 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-017-0953-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-017-0953-x

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