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In Reply: Mr Siegel raises 4 substantive points in relation to my Commentary to which I would like to respond. First, contrary to what is implied, there is a close correspondence between the Gini coefficient and relative child poverty rates in high-income countries¹ (r = 0.78, P < .001 in the countries covered in the Commentary). Relative child poverty was used because Gini coefficients were available for fewer countries and for time periods less contemporaneous with child mortality data. The linear association between Gini coefficients and child mortality was also statistically significant (n = 18, adjusted r² = 0.73, P < .001).

Second, the Commentary was not intended to address within-country inequalities. However, the anomalous data on Denmark Siegel references related to within-country inequality in the self-rated health of adults and was explained by the authors as "almost entirely [due] to the fact that early retired individuals [in Denmark] have much worse health and are . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Eric Emerson, PhD
eric.emerson@lancaster.ac.uk
Division of Health Research
Lancaster University
Lancaster, England

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RELATED LETTER

Inequalities in Income and Health Related to Child Poverty
Martin Siegel
JAMA. 2009;301(22):2328-2329.
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