Abstract
Objective: To investigate thecorrelations between age- and gender-specificmeasures of socio-economic status versus healthstatus as measured by the SF-36.
Design: Population based study.
Participants: 38187 people aged between18 to 79 years who participated in the NationalHealth Survey in 1995.
Results: Factor analysis producedconsistent results that were interpreted interms of five conceptually meaningful domains(employment, housing, migration, family unitand education). The relative rank of thefactors differs between groups and in somecases factor composition requires items to beadded or deleted from the conceptual domains.
Conclusions: Age- and gender-specific SESscores based on these factors had strongerassociations with the physical and mentalcomponents of SF-36 than either an area basedindex or scores derived from males aged 40–44years. Overall the results supported thehypothesis that SES measures composed of socialand demographic items exhibit important age-and gender-specific differences which arerelevant for health.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Australian Bureau of Statistics: 1995, National Health Survey: Users' Guide, Catalogue No. 4363 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra).
Australian Bureau of Statistics: 1998, 1996 Census of Population and Housing: Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas, Catalogue No. 2039 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra).
Australian Bureau of Statistics: 1997, Information Paper: National Health Survey Sample File on Magnetic Media, Catalogue No. 4324 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra).
Baghurst, K.I., S.J. Record, P.A. Baghurst, J.A. Syrette, D. Crawford and A. Worsley: 1990, “Sociodemographic determinants in Australia of the intake of food and nutrients implicated in cancer aetiology”, Medical Journal of Australia 153, pp. 444–452.
Ben-Shlomo, Y. and G.D. Smith: 1999, “Socioeconomic position should be measured accurately”, BMJ 318, p. 845.
Brezinka, V. and F. Kittel: 1996, “Psychosocial factors of coronary heart disease in women: A review”, Social Science and Medicine 42, pp. 1351–1365.
Brown, W.J. et al.: 1996, “Women's health Australia: Establishment of the Australian longitudinal study on women's health”, Journal of Women's Healtht 5, pp. 467–472.
Byth, K., J.H. McIntosh and D.W. Piper: 1992, “A note on sex-specific mortality and social class in Sydney, 1979–1983”, Australian Journal of Public Health 16, pp. 321–323.
Cantor, C.H., J. Slater and J.M. Najman: 1995, “Socioeconomic indices and suicide rate in P Queensland”, Australian Journal of Public Health 19, pp. 417–420.
Chandola, T.: 2000, “Social class differences in mortality using the new UK National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification”, Social Science and Medicine 50, pp. 641–649.
Crespo, C.J., B.E. Ainsworth, S.J. Keteyian, G.W. Heath and E. Smit: 1999, “Prevalence of physical inactivity and its relation to social class in US adults: Results from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988–1994”, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 31, pp. 1821–1827.
Cubbin, C., F.B. LeClere and G.S. Smith: 2000, “Socioeconomic status and the occurrence of fatal and nonfatal injury in the United States”, American Journal of Public Health 90, pp. 70–77.
Danesh, J., S. Gault, J. Semmence, P. Appleby, and R. Peto: 1999, “Postcodes as useful markers of social class: Population based study in 26,000 British households”, BMJ 318, pp. 843–845.
Daniel, A.: 1984, “The measurement of social class”, Community Health Studies 8, pp. 218–222.
Der, D., S. MacIntyre, G. Ford, K. Hunt and P. West: 1999, “The relationship of household income to a range of health measures in three age cohorts from the West of Scotland”, The European Journal of Public Health 9, pp. 271–277.
Goldthorpe, J.H.: 1983, “Women and class analysis: In defense of the conventional view”, Sociology 17, pp. 465–488.
Graham, H. and S. Hunt: 1994, “Women's smoking and measures of women's socio-economic status in the United Kingdom”, Health Promotion International 9, pp. 81–88.
Hair, J.F. Jr., R.E. Anderson, R.L. Tatham and W.C. Black: 1997, Multivariate Data Analysis with Readings, 4th edn. (Prentice Hall International Editions, New Jersey).
Hallqvist, J., M. Lundbert, F. Diderichsen and A. Ahlbom: 1998, “Socioeconomic differences in risk of myocardial infarction 1971–1994 in Sweden: Time trends, relative risks and population attributable risks”, International Journal of Epidemiology 27, pp. 410–415.
Hyndman, J.C.G., C.D.J. Holman, R.L. Hockey, R.J. Donovan, B. Corti and J. Rivera: 1995, “Misclassification of social disadvantage based on geographical areas: Comparisons of postcodes and collectors' district analyses”, International Journal of Epidemiology 24, pp. 165–176.
Kolbe, J., M. Vamos and W. Fergusson: 1997, “Socioeconomic disadvantage, quality of medical care and admission for acute severe asthma”, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 27, pp. 294–295.
Lawson, J.S. and D. Black: 1993, “Socioeconomic status: The prime indicator of premature death in Australia”, Journal of Biosocial Science 25, pp. 539–552.
Liberatos, P., B.G. Link and J.L. Kelsey: 1999, “The measurement of social class in epidemiology”, Epidemiology Review 10, pp. 87–122.
Logan, W.P.D.: 1982, Cancer Mortality by Occupation and Social Class 1851–1971 (International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon).
MacIntyre, S. and K. Hunt: 1997, “Socio-Economic position, gender and health: How do they interact?”, Journal of Health Psychology 2, pp. 315–334.
Mackenbach, J.P. et al.: 1999, “Socioeconomic inequalities in mortality among women and among men: An international study”, American Journal of Public Health 89, pp. 1800–1806.
Marmot, M.G., M.J. Shipley and G. Rose: 1984, “Inequalities in death — specific explanations of a general pattern?”, Lancet 1, pp. 1003–1006.
Martin, J. and C. Roberts: 1984, Women and Employment: A Lifetime Perspective. Department of Employment/OCPS (HMSO, London).
Martikainen, P.: 1995, “Mortality and socio-economic status among Finnish women”, Population Studies 49, pp. 71–90.
McDonough, P., D.R. Williams, J.S. House and G.J. Duncan: 1999, “Gender and the socioeconomic gradient in mortality”, Journal of Health and Social Behavior 40, pp. 17–31.
Najman, J.M.: 1988, “The measurement of socioeconomic inequality and social class in Australia: A review of past practices and recent developments”, Community Health Studies 12, pp. 31–41.
Osborn, A.F.: 1987, “Assessing the socio-economic status of families”, Sociology 21, pp. 429–448.
Osler, M. et al.: 2000, “Socioeconomic status and trends in risk factors for cardiovascular diseases in the Danish MONICA population, 1982–1992”, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 54, pp. 108–113.
Quine, S.: 1991, “Social class as a risk factor for infant mortality in an Australian population”, Journal of Biosocial Science 23, pp. 65–72.
Rohlfs, I., C. Borrell, M.I. Pasarin and A. Plasencia: 1999, “The role of sociodemographic factors in preventive practices. The case of cervical and breast cancer”, The European Journal of Public Health 9, pp. 278–284.
Sarlio-Lahteenkorva, A. and E. Lahelma: 1999, “The association of body mass index with socioeconomic disadvantage in women and men”, International Journal of Epidemiology 28, pp. 445–449.
Siskind, V., R. Copeman and J.M. Najman: 1987, “Socioeconomic status and mortality: A Brisbane area analysis”, Community Health Studies 11, pp. 15–23.
Sobal, J. and A.J. Stunkard: 1989, “Socioeconomic status and obesity: A review of the literature”, Psychological Bulletin 105, pp. 260–275.
Taylor, R., S. Quine, D. Lyle and A. Bilton: 1992, “Socioeconomic correlates of mortality and hospital morbidity differentials by Local Government Area in Sydney 1985–1988”, Australian Journal of Public Health 16, pp. 305–314.
Tyroler, H.A.: 1999, “The influence of socioeconomic factors on cardiovascular disease risk factor development”, Preventive Medicine 29, pp. S36–S40.
Ware, J.E., M. Kosinski and S.D. Keller: 1994, SF-36 Physical and Mental Health Summary Scales: A User's Manual (The Health Institute, New England Medical Center, Boston, MA).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mishra, G.D., Ball, K., Dobson, A.J. et al. The Measurement of Socio-Economic Status: Investigation of Gender-and Age-Specific Indicators in Australia: National Health Survey 1995. Social Indicators Research 56, 73–89 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011834621663
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011834621663