Health Perceptions, Social Indicators and Crime Events

Luis Rubalcava, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE)
Paulina Oliva, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE)

There has been an increase in the availability of data on a broad array of social indicators such as life expectancy, health and education. Nevertheless, within a single survey, good measures of social indicators are hard to come by. Self-reported health measures present systematic measurement error. There is lack of knowledge on how other social indicators are related to the person’s knowledge of health and the mechanisms through which they operate. This paper analyzes the correlation of the gap between subjectively reported and objectively measured health using individual anthropometric data. We find that the mental status of an individual, the exposure to personal crime events, and the individual’s attitude towards routine exercise, alcohol and smoking have different associations with individual health perception. These correlations differ with respect to individual’s age, education and income. The analysis is drawn from the Mexican Family Life Survey 2002.