The relationship between corruption and chronic diseases: evidence from Europeans aged 50 years and older

Objectives - Do people living in more corrupted countries report worse health? We answer this question by investigating the relationship between country-level corruption and the number of chronic diseases for a sample of Europeans aged above 50. Methods - We link a rich panel dataset on individual h...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Ferrari, Lorenzo 1988- (Author) ; Salustri, Francesco (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2020
In: International journal of public health
Year: 2020, Volume: 65, Issue: 3, Pages: 345-355
Online Access: Volltext (Publisher)
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
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Summary:Objectives - Do people living in more corrupted countries report worse health? We answer this question by investigating the relationship between country-level corruption and the number of chronic diseases for a sample of Europeans aged above 50. Methods - We link a rich panel dataset on individual health and socio-demographic characteristics with two country-level corruption indices, analyse the overall relationship with pooled ordinary least squares and fixed-effect models, explore heterogeneous effects driven by country and individual factors, and disentangle the effect across different public sectors. Results - Individuals living in more corrupted countries suffer from a higher number of chronic diseases. The heterogeneity analysis shows that (1) health outcomes are worsened especially for respondents living in relatively low-income countries; (2) the health of females and people with poor socio-economic status is more affected by corruption; (3) the corruption–health negative link mainly occurs for cardiovascular diseases and ulcers; (4) only corrupted sectors linked with healthcare are associated with poorer health. Conclusions - We inform the policy debate with novel results in establishing a nexus between corruption and morbidity indicators. Electronic supplementary material - The online version of this article (10.1007/s00038-020-01347-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Item Description:Gesehen am 05.02.2026
ISSN:1661-8564
DOI:10.1007/s00038-020-01347-w