Multidimensional Health Modeling: Association Between Socioeconomic and Psychosocial Factors and Health in Latvia

Abstract

This research aims at estimating impact of socioeconomic and psychosocial factors on health outcomes in Latvia. We find empirical support for the association between psychosocial factors and health.

This paper proposes new approach for modeling health. We find that concept of health is too complicated to measure effects of health determinants using a one-dimensional model. We apply two-dimensional stereotype logistic model that allows capturing non-monotonicity in effects of latent factors and revealing significant effects that would remain unseen if single dimension models, such as ordered logit or probit, were used.

Keywords: self-assessed health, socioeconomic determinants, psychosocial factors, nonmonotonicity, stereotype logit

JEL Classification: I10, I18, C52