Methodological issues in the analysis of the socioeconomic determinants of health using EU-SILC data

Health inequalities across socioeconomic groups are a health and public policy concern in all countries. There exist robust methodological tools from the epidemiological and economics disciplines to measure inequalities in health and there is a substantial amount of evidence on the level of inequalities in health across countries. However, there are numerous methodological issues that the study of health inequalities introduces. In this article we discuss the potential reporting bias and the alternative methods included in other health surveys to correct for this issue. Secondly, we distinguish between short-term and long-term concentration index (CI), exploiting the longitudinal data included in EU-SILC. Thirdly, we discuss the corrected CI suggested by Erreygers (2009) to overcome the limitations of the �old� CI. Finally, we conclude with an analysis of unmet needs for medical and dental examination or treatment and their main reasons, using the data available in EU-SILC.