title: Explaining differences in education-related inequalities in health between urban and rural areas in Mongolia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  After the socioeconomic transition in 1990, Mongolia has been experiencing demographic and epidemiologic transitions; however, there is lack of evidence on socioeconomic-related inequality in health across the country. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the education-related inequalities in adult population health in urban and rural areas of Mongolia in 2007/2008.
  
  
  METHODS
  This paper used a nationwide cross-sectional data, the Household Socio-Economic Survey 2007/2008, collected by the National Statistical Office. We employed the Erreygers' concentration index to assess the degree of education-related inequality in adult health in urban and rural areas.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our results suggest that a lower education level was associated with poor self-reported health. The concentration indices of physical limitation and chronic disease were significantly less than zero in both areas. On the other hand, ill-health was concentrated among the less educated groups. The decomposition results show education, economic activity status and income were the main contributors to education-related inequalities in physical limitation and chronic disease removing age-sex related contributions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Improving accessibility and quality of education, especially for the lower socioeconomic groups may reduce socioeconomic-related inequality in health in both rural and urban areas of Mongolia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health, Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. javkhlanbayar.d@gmail.com.|Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland. javkhlanbayar.d@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Javkhlanbayar
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dorjdagva
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health, Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. eni1mn@yahoo.com.|Faculty of Economics and Business Sciences, University of Sannio, Sannio, Italy. eni1mn@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Enkhjargal
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Batbaatar
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Systems Governance and Financing, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland. BayarsaihkanD@who.int.
authors.forename: Bayarsaikhan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dorjsuren
authors.affiliation: Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland. jussi.kauhanen@uef.fi.
authors.forename: Jussi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kauhanen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004493:Education / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006262:Health / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008986:Mongolia / Q000453:epidemiology; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D057566:Self Report; D012923:Social Class; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*