Abstract
Limited understanding exists regarding the social determinants of psychological well-being inequalities, particularly in develo** countries with less developed healthcare and public policy systems for older individuals. This study employed two common decomposition analyses in health inequality research to explore factors influencing socioeconomic-related disparities in psychological well-being within and between Vietnam and Myanmar. Utilizing surveys from the 2012 Myanmar Aging Survey (N = 4,056) and the 2011 Vietnam Aging Survey (N = 2,688), we observed that inequality disproportionately affected the worse-off in both countries, with Vietnam experiencing a greater degree of inequality than Myanmar. The concentration index decomposition highlighted subjective income and offspring’s financial assistance as significant contributors to the observed inequality across both countries. The Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition showed that the disparity between Vietnam and Myanmar in inequality primarily stemmed from uneven wealth distribution across factors. This implies that wealth redistribution policies could mitigate disparities within and between the two countries.
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Data Availability
Data can be made available from Corresponding Author upon reasonable request.
Notes
The 2012 MAS is the most recent national aging survey available in Myanmar, so using the 2011 VNAS would be relatively comparable. While we are aware of a more recent wave of the VNAS and the availability of the 2018 baseline data from the Longitudinal Study of Aging and Health in Vietnam, to the best of our knowledge, this dataset is currently not publicly available for outside-institutes researchers.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Institute of Social and Medical Studies (ISMS) and John Knodel, Population Studies Center, University of Michigan, USA for giving us access to the 2011 Vietnam Aging Survey and 2012 Myanmar Aging Survey.
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This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
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TNHD and DDL conceptualized, designed the study and analyzed data section. Both authors wrote manuscript, commented on the data analysis, reviewed and gave overall comments about the manuscripts. Both authors contributed to and have approved the final manuscript.
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The need for ethical approval was waived by the Ethical Board of Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University, Thailand and the Institute of Social and Medical Studies, Vietnam or is deemed unnecessary. Because the study used only secondary data and no personally identifiable data was used in the analysis or dissemination of the results of this study.
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Dang, T.N.H., Le, D.D. Explaining Socioeconomic Inequality in Psychological Well-being among Older People: A Comparison between Vietnam and Myanmar. Population Ageing (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12062-024-09459-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12062-024-09459-4