Using Agent-Based Modeling to Understand the Emergence and Reproduction of Social Inequalities in Health †
1
Department of Biomedicine, Biotechnology, and Public Health, University of Cadiz, 11009 Cadiz, Spain
2
University Institute of Research and Innovation in Biomedical Sciences of Cadiz (INiBICA), 11009 Cadiz, Spain
3
University Institute of Research in Social Sustainable Development (INDESS), University of Cadiz, 11406 Cadiz, Spain
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
Presented at the 2nd International Electronic Conference on Environmental Health Sciences, 4–29 November 2019; Available online: https://iecehs-2.sciforum.net/.
Proceedings 2020, 44(1), 2; https://doi.org/10.3390/IECEHS-2-06372
Published: 1 November 2019
(This article belongs to the Proceedings of The 2nd International Electronic Conference on Environmental Health Sciences)
Studies on social inequalities in health present contradictory findings when they attempt to describe and identify the complex societal mechanisms that give rise to poor health outcomes and health inequalities. This work aims to study the mechanism of reproduction of health inequalities among different population groups using agent-based modeling. We combine evidence-based knowledge and survey data to set the simulation model. Our initial findings show that the combination of the most adverse contextual conditions (i.e., negative environmental exposure and the absence of health-care provision) combined with extreme social inequalities in health might increase mortality drastically. The model suggests that, although poor health outcomes may emerge through the action of individual determinants, social inequalities generally emerge and reproduce through non-linear associations and complex multivariate data structures.
Keywords:
social inequalities; socio-economic status; health inequalities; agent-based models; emergence; complex systems
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Alvarez-Galvez, J.; Suarez-Lledo, V. Using Agent-Based Modeling to Understand the Emergence and Reproduction of Social Inequalities in Health. Proceedings 2020, 44, 2. https://doi.org/10.3390/IECEHS-2-06372
AMA Style
Alvarez-Galvez J, Suarez-Lledo V. Using Agent-Based Modeling to Understand the Emergence and Reproduction of Social Inequalities in Health. Proceedings. 2020; 44(1):2. https://doi.org/10.3390/IECEHS-2-06372
Chicago/Turabian StyleAlvarez-Galvez, Javier, and Victor Suarez-Lledo. 2020. "Using Agent-Based Modeling to Understand the Emergence and Reproduction of Social Inequalities in Health" Proceedings 44, no. 1: 2. https://doi.org/10.3390/IECEHS-2-06372
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