Abstract
Although individuals are known to be affected by concerns about relative position, little research investigates how neighbors’ wealth affects one’s hypertension risks. This paper investigates the relationship between neighborhood wealth and hypertension using both self-reported hypertension and objective hypertension. I find that self-reported hypertension rate substantially underestimates objectively measured hypertension rate. Consequently, while there is a positive, statistically significant relationship between neighborhood wealth and hypertension when using self-reported hypertension, the results based on measured hypertension data differ substantially, with the relationship only observed for people aged 55–65 but not for younger or older age groups. There is also evidence of a positive relationship between continuous blood pressure and neighborhood wealth for adult people (aged 30 or older).
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Notes
Stutzer and Frey (2013) provide an excellent review of recent developments in happiness research, including issues in happiness measurement.
The strategy consists of two steps. First, real total household expenditures in 1997–1998 are regressed on a large list of independent variables including consumption, owned assets, household size, etc. The coefficients calculated from this regression were then multiplied by the values of the same variables from the VNHS 2001. The predicted real total household expenditures for 2001 were then calculated. The exponential of this value was taken and divided by household size to give 2001 real per capita expenditures. There are a total of 35,918 cases with information on the independent variables for which total household expenditures could be predicted.
With 36,000 households in 1200 communes in the survey, each commune has 30 households on average.
In principle, panel data would provide a better way to control for unobserved individual heterogeneity that drives self selection. However, for panel data methods to work, one needs to have a long panel so that there is sufficient variation in neighborhood wealth. Such a long panel would be a luxury in a developing country.
While the focus of this study is on the relationship between neighborhood wealth and hypertension, this relationship can also be viewed as an empirical test of the relationship between hypertension and happiness. This test will be possible if two conditions are satisfied: (1) there is an indirect positive effect (through happiness) of neighborhood wealth on hypertension, and (2) happiness has a negative, causal effect on hypertension.
In Vietnam, retirement age is 55 for women and 60 for men.
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Nguyen, H.V. Keeping Up with the Joneses: Neighbourhood Wealth and Hypertension. J Happiness Stud 17, 1255–1271 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-015-9641-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-015-9641-9