HIERARCHICAL MODELS FOR INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS: A CASE STUDY OF SMOKING, DISABILITY AND SOCIAL INEQUALITY IN 21 EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

Abstract

International comparisons of social inequalities in health are challenging. The level of disaggregation often required can result in sparse data. We show the value of a hierarchical Bayesian approach that partially pools country-level estimates, reducing the influence of sampling variation and increasing the stability of estimates. A further challenge is how to simultaneously present the level of inequality and their precision on relative and absolute scales. We illustrate a new way of displaying estimates of prevalence, relative and absolute inequalities, and the uncertainty of these three estimates, on one plot. We used the 2014 European Social Survey to estimate smoking prevalence, absolu..