Year: 2010
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Epidemiologic studies seldom include wealth as a component of socioeconomic status. The authors investigated the associations between wealth and 2 broad outcome measures: mortality and self-rated general health status. Data from the longitudinal Panel Study of Income Dynamics, collected in a US population between 1984 and 2005, were used to fit marginal structural models and to estimate relative and absolute measures of effect. Wealth was specified as a 6-category variable: those with ≤0 wealth and quintiles of positive wealth. There were a 16%-44% higher risk and 6-18 excess cases of poor/fair health (per 1,000 persons) among the less wealthy relative to the wealthiest quintile. Less wealthy men, women, and whites had higher risk of poor/fair health relative to their wealthy counterparts. The overall wealth-mortality association revealed a 62% increased risk and 4 excess deaths (per 1,000 persons) among the least wealthy. Less wealthy women had between a 24% and a 90% higher risk of death, and the least wealthy men had 6 excess deaths compared with the wealthiest quintile. Overall, there was a strong inverse association between wealth and poor health status and between wealth and mortality.
Source: American Journal of Epidemiology
DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwq348
Institutions: University of Michigan, McGill University, University of Toronto
Language: English
Subfield: Health
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funders: McGill University, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, University of Toronto, National Institutes of Health, Health Resources and Services Administration, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
OpenAlex ID: W2096043764