Work

Socioeconomic Status and Health across the Life Course: A Test of the Social Causation and Health Selection Hypotheses

Year: 2009

Type: article

Abstract: This research investigates the merits of the "social causation" and "health selection" explanations for associations between socioeconomic status and self-reported overall health, musculoskeletal health and depression. Using data that include information about individuals' SES and health from childhood through late adulthood, I employ structural equation models that account for errors in measured variables and that allow for explicit tests of various hypotheses about how SES and health are related. For each outcome and for both women and men the results provide no support for the health selection hypothesis. SES affects each health outcome at multiple points in the life course, but the reverse is not true.

Source: Social Forces

DOI: 10.1353/sof.0.0219

Author: J. R. Warren

Institution: University of Minnesota

Language: English

Topic: Health disparities and outcomes

Subfield: Health

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Good health and well-being, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging