The work presents a general picture of the inequalities in the determinants considered to explain the disparities in the self-evaluation of health status using the data of the PNAD/1998. It is shown that there are large gradients in the classification of health status according to levels of education and income per capita, according to race or color of the skin, for the great regions of the country and specially with age. Using logistic regression models an attempt is made to explain which are the most important determinants of this self-classification. The results show that education and income have separate additive effects and that there are differences between men and women and according to living in urban or rural areas. The inequalities in the self-evaluation of health status according to race or color of the skin are no longer statistically significant after controlling for education and income levels. A discussion is presented of the usefulness of this kind of information on self-reported health status and of the importance of improving the quality of this type of data in future household surveys by presenting suggestions on changes in the way the interview is conducted.
Self-evaluation of health status; Health inequalities; Household surveys; Determinants of health inequalities
