Rising Income Inequality And The Socioeconomic Gradient In Self-rated Health: An Examination Of The United States From 1975 To 2010

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and health, and examines how that relationship may be affected in the context of rising income inequality. Using General Social Survey (GSS) data from 1975 to 2010 to perform a series of logistic regressions, this study examines the relationship between health and three common measures of socioeconomic status—household income, education, and occupational prestige—to determine if all three measures of SES are significantly associated with self-rated health when controlling for socio-demographic variables. Full model odds ratios are plotted by year to provide a visual illustration of the change in the association from 1975 to 2010, in the context of a significant increase in U.S. income inequality. Next, year interaction effects are considered for each SES measure to determine if there is a significant difference in the effect from the base year of 1975.The study provides two major findings. First, household income and education are significantly associated with self-rated health across all years, but occupational prestige is not a significant predictor of self-rated health when controlling for household income and education. And secondly, there is no overall clear pattern in the change in the effect of household income, education, or occupational prestige throughout all years of the study. However, the interaction effects, when compared to the base year of 1975, demonstrate a significant difference in the effect of income for some years between 1977 and 1991 and in the effect of education for some years between 1990 and 2006.