sjstats (version 0.19.0)

inequ_trend: Compute trends in status inequalities

Description

This method computes the proportional change of absolute (rate differences) and relative (rate ratios) inequalities of prevalence rates for two different status groups, as proposed by Mackenbach et al. (2015).

Usage

inequ_trend(data, prev.low, prev.hi)

Value

A data frame with the prevalence rates as well as the values for the proportional change in absolute (rd) and relative (rr) ineqqualities.

Arguments

data

A data frame that contains the variables with prevalence rates for both low and high status groups (see 'Examples').

prev.low

The name of the variable with the prevalence rates for the low status groups.

prev.hi

The name of the variable with the prevalence rates for the hi status groups.

Details

Given the time trend of prevalence rates of an outcome for two status groups (e.g. the mortality rates for people with lower and higher socioeconomic status over 40 years), this function computes the proportional change of absolute and relative inequalities, expressed in changes in rate differences and rate ratios. The function implements the algorithm proposed by Mackenbach et al. 2015.

References

Mackenbach JP, Martikainen P, Menvielle G, de Gelder R. 2015. The Arithmetic of Reducing Relative and Absolute Inequalities in Health: A Theoretical Analysis Illustrated with European Mortality Data. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 70(7): 730-36. tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.1136/jech-2015-207018")

Examples

# This example reproduces Fig. 1 of Mackenbach et al. 2015, p.5

# 40 simulated time points, with an initial rate ratio of 2 and
# a rate difference of 100 (i.e. low status group starts with a
# prevalence rate of 200, the high status group with 100)

# annual decline of prevalence is 1% for the low, and 3% for the
# high status group

n <- 40
time <- seq(1, n, by = 1)
lo <- rep(200, times = n)
for (i in 2:n) lo[i] <- lo[i - 1] * .99

hi <- rep(100, times = n)
for (i in 2:n) hi[i] <- hi[i - 1] * .97

prev.data <- data.frame(lo, hi)

# print values
inequ_trend(prev.data, "lo", "hi")

# plot trends - here we see that the relative inequalities
# are increasing over time, while the absolute inequalities
# are first increasing as well, but later are decreasing
# (while rel. inequ. are still increasing)
plot(inequ_trend(prev.data, "lo", "hi"))