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Do social relations explain health inequalities? Evidence from a longitudinal survey in a changing eastern German region

  • Original Article
  • Published:
International Journal of Public Health

Abstract

Objectives

This study explores the contribution of social relations to explain inequalities in self-rated health in a changing north-eastern German region. So far, there are only few studies that analysed the mediating effects of social relations in a longitudinal design.

Methods

We used data from the Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP) consisting of 3,300 randomly selected men and women at baseline (2001), and at the 5-year follow-up (2006). Indicators of social inequality were education, equivalent household income and occupational status. Social relations were estimated by the Social Integration Index (SII) and the perceived instrumental and emotional support. Self-rated general health was assessed at both waves of data collection.

Results

Depending on the indicators used, social relations explain up to 35% of the inequalities in self-rated health. Changes in odds ratios are slightly more pronounced when education and income are used as inequality indicator and when adjusting for the SII.

Conclusions

Overall findings suggest that social relations are an important explanatory factor for health inequalities in a deprived German region.

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Acknowledgments

SHIP is part of the Community Medicine Net (http://medizin.uni-greifswald.de/icm) of the University of Greifswald funded by grants form the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, grant 01ZZ96030, 01ZZ0701). The contributions to data collection made by field workers, study physicians, ultrasound technicians, interviewers, and computer assistants are gratefully acknowledged. The authors would like to thank the German Research Council for funding the project ‘Health inequalities and social relationships’ (DFG, funding number KN 885/3-1).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standards

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Greifswald and complies with the current laws of the country.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Sociology and Health Economics, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany

    Jens Klein, Nico Vonneilich & Olaf von dem Knesebeck

  2. Institute for Community Medicine, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

    Sebastian E. Baumeister & Thomas Kohlmann

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  1. Jens Klein
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  2. Nico Vonneilich
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  3. Sebastian E. Baumeister
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  5. Olaf von dem Knesebeck
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Correspondence to Jens Klein.

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Klein, J., Vonneilich, N., Baumeister, S.E. et al. Do social relations explain health inequalities? Evidence from a longitudinal survey in a changing eastern German region. Int J Public Health 57, 619–627 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-012-0356-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-012-0356-y

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