Is the Distribution of Cardiovascular Risks Really Improving ? A Robust Analysis for France.

In this paper, we appraise the recent evolution of the distribution of individuals’ risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in France among both men and women using new normative criteria. An individual risk of CVD is described by a probability of getting such a disease. Building on the framework of Gravel and Tarroux (2015), we assume that individuals, who differ by their income, have Von Neuman-Morgenstern (VNM) preferences over such risks. We appeal to Harsanyi’s aggregation theorem to provide empirically implementable dominance criteria that coincide with the unanimity, taken over a large class of such individual preferences, of anonymous and Pareto-inclusive VNM social rankings of distributions of individuals’ risk of CVD. The implementable criteria that we obtain are Sequential headcount poverty dominance and Sequential headcount affluence dominance. We apply these criteria to the distribution of cardiovascular risks among French men and women on the 2006-2010 period. Probabilities of CVD are assigned to individuals on the basis of a logit model estimated on both the men and the women samples for each of the two years. Our main empirical result is that men and women were differently affected by evolution in the distribution of CVD risks between 2006 and 2010. Specifically, the distribution improved for women but did not improve for men

Comparing Distributions of Body Mass Index Categories

This paper compares distributions of Body Mass Index (BMI) among men and women in France, the US and the UK on the basis of a new normative criterion. Comparing distributions of BMI from a normative standpoint is conceptually challenging because of the ordinal nature of the variable. Our normative criterion is well-suited to handle this issue. It coincides with the possibility of moving from the dominated distribution to the dominating one by a finite sequence of Hammond transfers and/or elementary efficiency gains. An additional difficulty with BMI is that it is not monotonically increasing (or decreasing) with health or well-being. We therefore perform our analysis by considering all health-consistent rankings of BMI values. Our empirical results are striking. For a large class of these rankings of BMI values, it is shown that the distribution of BMI in France has worsened on the period 2008-2010 for both men and women according to first order dominance. It is also shown that for most welfare rankings of BMI values, the distribution of BMI is worse in every period in the female population than in the male one in all three countries

Cardiovascular risk : the environment of dissemination of modifiable risk factors

La santé est une construction dynamique et multifactorielle qui a une dimension individuelle et une dimension sociale. Cette dernière peut avoir un effet direct ou indirect sur les comportements des individus et sur leurs choix de vie. L’étude de Framingham a révélé que le risque cardiovasculaire était multifactoriel et donc son estimation devait être globale. Mais les méthodes d’estimation du risque cardiovasculaire ne prennent pas en compte l’environnement de vie des individus qui favoriserait le développement des facteurs de risque modifiables. A travers ce travail, nous mettons en lumière les caractéristiques de l'environnement de diffusion des facteurs de risque cardiovasculaires modifiables : métaboliques et comportementales. Depuis des décennies, la région Nord enregistre pour les maladies cardiovasculaires des taux élevés de mortalité globale et prématurée. Nous nous sommes interrogés sur les déterminants de cette situation de la région Nord, en la comparant aux autres régions françaises, et en explorant le lien entre un risque cardiovasculaire élevé et une situation économique défavorable. Dans ce but, nous avons étudié le lien entre la distribution du risque cardiovasculaire et la distribution du revenu, en employant des critères normatifs basés sur la notion de dominance sociale en termes de pauvreté.Ce travail permet d’analyser les connaissances en rapport avec l’environnement de vie des individus et ainsi une meilleure compréhension des mécanismes de diffusion des facteurs de risque modifiables, ce qui s’inscrit dans une double perspective, réduire l’incidence et la prévalence des maladies cardiovasculaires et diminuer les inégalités sociales de santé.Health is a dynamic and multifactor construction which has both an individual and a social dimension. The latter may have a direct or indirect effect on the behaviour of individuals and their life choices. The Framingham study has revealed that cardiovascular risk is multifactorial and, as such, its estimate should be global. However, the assessment of global cardiovascular risk methods do not take into account the living environment of individuals, which would factor the development of modifiable risk factors. Through this work, we highlight the characteristics of the environment of dissemination of modifiable cardiovascular risk factors: metabolic and behavioural. Since decades, the North region of France has, for cardiovascular diseases, a high level of global and premature mortality. We are asked about the determinants of the situation of this region, by comparing it to other French regions and by exploring the link between a high cardiovascular risk and an unfavourable economic situation. Thus, we are interested in the link between the distribution of cardiovascular risk and the distribution of income, using normative criteria based on the concept of expected social dominance in terms of poverty. Shedding a light on factors favouring the occurrence of cardiovascular problems and analyzing the knowledge about the individual’s life environment allows a better understanding of the mechanisms of diffusion of the modifiable risk factors, with a double objective to lower the incidence and prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and to reduce the social inequalities in health

Is body weight better distributed among men than among women? A robust normative analysis for France, the UK and the US

International audienceWe compare distributions of Body Mass Index (BMI) categories among genders in France, the US and the UK on the basis of effciency and inequality considerations. The new normative criteria that we propose are well-suited to the ordinal nature of this variable. Our empirical results, which are supported by robust statistical inference, are twofolds. First, BMI categories are better distributed in France than in the UK, and in the UK than in the US for the two genders. Second, BMI categories happen to be more equally distributed among men than among women in all three countries

Comparing Distributions of Body Mass Index Categories

This paper compares distributions of Body Mass Index (BMI) among men and women in France, the US and the UK on the basis of a new normative criterion. Comparing distributions of BMI from a normative standpoint is conceptually challenging because of the ordinal nature of the variable. Our normative criterion is well-suited to handle this issue. It coincides with the possibility of moving from the dominated distribution to the dominating one by a finite sequence of Hammond transfers and/or elementary efficiency gains. An additional difficulty with BMI is that it is not monotonically increasing (or decreasing) with health or well-being. We therefore perform our analysis by considering all health-consistent rankings of BMI values. Our empirical results are striking. For a large class of these rankings of BMI values, it is shown that the distribution of BMI in France has worsened on the period 2008-2010 for both men and women according to first order dominance. It is also shown that for most welfare rankings of BMI values, the distribution of BMI is worse in every period in the female population than in the male one in all three countries

Is body weight better distributed among men than among women? A robust normative analysis for France, the UK and the US

International audienceWe compare distributions of Body Mass Index (BMI) categories among genders in France, the US and the UK on the basis of effciency and inequality considerations. The new normative criteria that we propose are well-suited to the ordinal nature of this variable. Our empirical results, which are supported by robust statistical inference, are twofolds. First, BMI categories are better distributed in France than in the UK, and in the UK than in the US for the two genders. Second, BMI categories happen to be more equally distributed among men than among women in all three countries