Social inequalities in health by individual and household measures of social position in a cohort of healthy people

STUDY OBJECTIVE: It is increasingly recognised that different dimensions of social inequality may be linked to health by different pathways. Furthermore, factors operating at the individual level such as employment conditions may affect health in a different way from household level factors. The paper examines the associations between self rated health and four measures of social position- occupational class, household social advantage, personal and household income.

DESIGN: Multilevel logistic regression models were used to predict self rated health using longitudinal data from the British Household panel survey (BHPS) with respondents nested within households. Separate analyses were carried out for economically active and inactive respondents.

SETTING: Interview based surveys of adults living within households that are representative of British households.

PARTICIPANTS: Adult respondents from the BHPS.

MAIN RESULTS: Occupational class has relatively strong effects on the self rated health of the economically active, although household level factors also seem to influence their health. Household social advantage has relatively strong effects on the self rated health of the economically inactive.

CONCLUSIONS: The paper found evidence in support of the view that different dimensions of social inequality have different pathways to self rated health. There are unexplained similarities in health between household members, which require further investigation.