Skip Navigation


The European Journal of Public Health Advance Access originally published online on October 9, 2007
The European Journal of Public Health 2008 18(2):131-137; doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckm096
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
18/2/131    most recent
ckm096v1
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Arendt, J. N.
Right arrow Articles by Lauridsen, J.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Arendt, J. N.
Right arrow Articles by Lauridsen, J.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved.

Health Inequalities

Do risk factors explain more of the social gradient in self-reported health when adjusting for baseline health?

Jacob Nielsen Arendt and Jørgen Lauridsen

Institute of Public Health – Health Economics, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark

Correspondence: Jacob Nielsen Arendt, J B Winsløws vej 9B, 5000, Odense C, tel: +45 6550 3843, fax: +45 6550 3880, e-mail: jna{at}sam.sdu.dk

Received December 20, 2006 , accepted September 4, 2007

Background: It has often been debated the extent to which known risk factors explain socio-economic differences in health. While common in mortality studies, few studies of morbidity adjust for baseline health. In this study, we argue that there are sound reasons to do so, and examine whether a set of risk factors explain a larger part of social gradients in men and women's self-rated health (SRH) in Denmark when controlling for previous health. Methods: We use interval regression models on longitudinal survey data from 1990 and 1995 separately for Danish male and female workers aged 18–59. Results: Large social gradients are found in SRH for both men and women. The included risk factors (smoking, body mass index, high blood pressure and job satisfaction) reduce the educational gradient in SRH by 40% (based on highest versus no education), the wage gradient by 18% and leaves occupational gradients (based on no employment versus white collar workers) unaltered for men. For women, similar gradients are altered by 6 and 22 and 14% in cross-sectional models. Controlling for baseline health 5 years earlier, the risk factors reduce the education, occupation and wage gradients by 45, –15 and 17% for men and by 5, 25 and 15% for women. Conclusion: The findings suggest that common risk factors do not explain a larger fraction of social health inequalities in dynamic than in static models of self-reported health.

Keywords: dynamics, health, risk factors, socio-economic status


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.