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Original research
Relative deprivation and human flourishing: how do upward income comparisons affect health, happiness and life satisfaction?
  1. Chun-Tung Kuo1,2,
  2. Ichiro Kawachi3
  1. 1 Institute of Health Behaviors and Community Sciences, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
  2. 2 Center for Survey Research, Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
  3. 3 Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Chun-Tung Kuo, Institute of Health Behaviors and Community Sciences, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; ctkuo.tim{at}gmail.com

Abstract

Background Relative deprivation induced by social comparisons is hypothesised to deleteriously affect health. Previous work has proposed the Embedded Image index as a measure of relative deprivation; however, the performance of this novel index still needs further testing in the working-age population. This study examined the association of three relative deprivation measures (the Yitzhaki Index, income rank and the Embedded Image index) with human flourishing outcomes.

Methods This cross-sectional study analysed data from 2177 working-age adults in Taiwan. We conducted least-squares linear models to investigate the association between relative deprivation measures and health, happiness, life satisfaction, meaning in life, social relationships, and subjective well-being.

Results When using sex and age as the reference group, for each increased SD in the Yitzhaki Index, the six human flourishing outcomes decreased by 0.10–0.20 SD. The results were consistent across various definitions of the reference group. Based on the Akaike information criterion, the Yitzhaki Index generally showed better model fits for health, happiness, life satisfaction and meaning in life, and had comparable model fits with the income rank for social relationships and subjective well-being. In comparing the relative performance of the Embedded Image index, positive α parameters (0<α<1) generally showed better model fits, suggesting that individuals were more sensitive to comparisons with those more distant from their own income level.

Conclusion Policies to reduce relative deprivation by lowering income inequality could contribute to a higher level of health, happiness, life satisfaction, meaning in life, social relationships and subjective well-being.

  • HEALTH
  • Health inequalities
  • HEALTH PROMOTION
  • MENTAL HEALTH
  • QUALITY OF LIFE

Data availability statement

Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available. The authors do not have the permission to share the data. Data can be accessed from the Survey Research Data Archive at Academia Sinica (https://srda.sinica.edu.tw/) in accordance with the relevant policies.

https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2023-220582

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    Data availability statement

    Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available. The authors do not have the permission to share the data. Data can be accessed from the Survey Research Data Archive at Academia Sinica (https://srda.sinica.edu.tw/) in accordance with the relevant policies.

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors CK conceptualised and designed the study. CK analysed the data and wrote the manuscript. IK contributed to result interpretation and critically revised the manuscript. All authors reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript. CK is the guarantor of this work.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.