Hierarchical Models for International Comparisons: Smoking, Disability, and Social Inequality in 21 European Countries

Abstract

Background: International comparisons of social inequalities in health outcomes and behaviors are challenging. Due to the level of disaggregation often required, data can be sparse and methods to make adequately powered comparisons are lacking. We aimed to illustrate 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. We also illustrate a new way of simultaneously displaying the uncertainty of both relative and absolute inequality estimates. Methods: We used the 2014 European Social Survey to estimate smoking prevalence, absolute, and relative inequalities for men a..