The socioeconomic status of older adults: How should we measure it in studies of health inequalities?
The socioeconomic status of older adults: How should we measure it in studies of health inequalities?
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DOI：
10.1136/jech.55.12.895
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发表时间：
2001-12-01
影响因子：
6.3
通讯作者：
Holt, G
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Grundy, E;Holt, G
研究目标 - 确定七个社会经济地位指标中的哪一个单独使用或与其他指标结合使用对于研究老年人口的健康不平等最有用。设计 - 在两波调查中对社会经济和健康数据进行二次分析。背景 - 英国。参与者在家里接受了训练有素的采访者的采访。 参与者 - 1988/9 年采访的 3543 名 55-69 岁成年人的全国代表性样本，其中 2243 人在 1994 年再次接受采访。 方法 - 参考文献确定了用于识别老年人群健康不平等的社会经济测量系统的理想特征。逻辑回归用于通过七个社会经济地位指标来检查自我报告的健康状况的变化。确定了具有最大解释力的一对指标。主要结果-所有指标均与自我报告的健康差异显着相关。根据所使用的标准，最好的变量对是教育资格或社会阶层与剥夺指标的配对。讨论-由于多种原因，社会经济地位的衡量在老年群体中尤其具有挑战性。扩展我们对哪些指标在分析中效果良好且相对容易收集的了解，应有助于进一步研究老年人群的健康不平等和适当的规划。
Study objective-To identify which of seven indicators of socioeconomic status used singly or combined with one other would be most useful in studies of health inequalities in the older population.Design-Secondary analysis of socioeconomic and health data in a two wave survey.Setting-Great Britain. Participants were interviewed at home by a trained interviewer.Participants-Nationally representative sample of 3543 adults aged 55-69 interviewed in 1988/9, 2243 of whom were interviewed again in 1994.Methods-Desirable features of socioeconomic measurement systems for identifying health inequalities in older populations were identified with reference to the literature. Logistic regression was used to examine variations in self reported health by seven indicators of socioeconomic status. The pair of indicators with the greatest explanatory power was identified.Main results-All indicators were significantly associated with differences in self reported health. The best pair of variables, according to criteria used, was educational qualification or social class paired with a deprivation indicator.Discussion-For a range of reasons the measurement of socioeconomic status is particularly challenging in older age groups. Extending our knowledge of which indicators work well in analyses and are relatively easy to collect should help both further study of health inequalities in the older population and appropriate planning.