Measuring skin color inequality in women's health in Northeast Brazil: Evidence from the PCSVDFMulher survey

In this paper, we investigate whether skin color is a source of inequality in women's health by exploring the longitudinal framework of the PCSVDFMulher survey in Northeast Brazil. Specifically, we measure the skin color gradient in women's general and mental health, as well as in showing...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Health economics 2024-01, Vol.33 (1), p.3-11
Main Authors: Oliveira, Victor Hugo, Carvalho, José Raimundo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brazil
Clinical outcomes
Health behavior
Health disparities
Health economics
Health risks
Health status
Mental health
Polls & surveys
Racial identity
Risk behavior
Skin color
Smoking
Socioeconomic factors
women's health
Womens health
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Summary:In this paper, we investigate whether skin color is a source of inequality in women's health by exploring the longitudinal framework of the PCSVDFMulher survey in Northeast Brazil. Specifically, we measure the skin color gradient in women's general and mental health, as well as in showing health risk behavior. We find that darker‐skinned women show poorer mental health outcomes and a higher likelihood of drinking and smoking more frequently than their lighter‐skinned counterparts. The skin color gradient is persistent and systematic, even when modeling different sources of unobserved heterogeneity and accounting for the existing socioeconomic inequalities and racial identity. We also find that racial identity is an important source of heterogeneous responses of women's health to skin tone.
ISSN:1057-9230
1099-1050
1099-1050
DOI:10.1002/hec.4764