Health inequality cannot be explained by socio-economic status alone. Different diseases are influenced by different combinations of income, education, gender, caste and place of residence, making a single explanation for health disparities insufficient.

Different Diseases Have Different Drivers of Health Inequality

Using data from the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI 2017–18), the authors examined how multiple socio-economic factors relate to the burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Their analysis showed that no single factor consistently explained disease patterns across all conditions. Instead, different diseases were associated with different combinations of socio-economic characteristics, leading the authors to conclude that health inequalities are multidimensional rather than driven by one underlying cause.

Public health programmes often target broad socio-economic groups. This research suggests that interventions should instead reflect the specific drivers of different diseases, allowing prevention, screening and treatment strategies to be tailored more effectively to the populations most at risk.