ABSTRACT
The non-clinical context of health In the heroic battle of public health against disease, it is easy to become so pre-occupied with the medical aspect that we forget that, globally speaking, the leading cause of ill-health is poverty. Therefore, those of us concerned with global health frequently have to analyse the distribution of incomes, both within individual nations and between nations. An increasingly used statistical tool in this is the Gini coefficient, and it makes use of the Lorenz curve. For that reason, today's research workers and students of epidemiology and public health will frequently see Gini coefficients cited. The following will enable such people to understand them.
