Social Class Inequalities in Self-rated Health and Their Gender and Age Group Differences in Japan

Abstract

Table 4. Adjusted * odds ratios (ORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for poor self-rated physical and mental health according to social class indicators (educational attainment and adjusted household income) and p values for trend test for all respondents and stratified analysis by age groups.

Different Income Information as an Indicator for Health Inequality among Japanese Adults

“…36 The analyses were conducted separately according to sex and age group because the relationship between socioeconomic indicators and health variables depends on sex and age. 15,19,20,22 The subjects were divided into those aged 20-59 years and those aged 60+ years, considering differences in social conditions such as employment status. Categorization of quintiles and dectiles was also conducted separately according to sex and age group.…”

“…15,19,20,22 The income indicators were total household income, total household expenditure, and their equivalent values. We used current smoking and self-rated health statuses as health variables, because they were shown to strongly correlate with socioeconomic position in previous studies of the Japanese population.…”

“…We used current smoking and self-rated health statuses as health variables, because they were shown to strongly correlate with socioeconomic position in previous studies of the Japanese population. 14,[20][21][22]31,32 …”

“…Second, only two health variables were used, namely, smoking and self-rated health statuses, which are the most common variables strongly associated with socioeconomic indicators. [13][14][15][19][20][21][22]31,32 It is possible that other health variables show degrees of association with income indicators different from those in this study.…”

“…8,11,12 Some previous studies in Japan applied total household income, [13][14][15][16][17] whereas others applied equivalent household income. [18][19][20][21][22] Information regarding living expenditure or consumption is another alternative representing living standard, and has thus been used in previous studies of health inequality and public health. [23][24][25][26] Although there is continuous debate about the usefulness of socioeconomic indicators, [27][28][29] no studies have evaluated different income information as an indicator for health inequality in Japan.…”