A study of inequalities in health: The role of wealth differences and social context

This study examines the so called "social causation hypothesis" of several conventional social status measures (otherwise known as socioeconomic status, or SES) and health. However, there are a variety of competing arguments that can bias the apparent relationship between SES (defined as occupation, income, and education) and health, such as "health selection", "reverse causality" and "spuriousness" (Palloni & Ewbank 2004). To control for the possible effects that may threaten the argument that status affects health, this study employs: (1) measures which are not as sensitive to changes in health, such as wealth (Duncan et al 2002), (2) information on self reported health measures, and (3) techniques that have been developed for controlling unmeasured heterogeneity.;The methodology for this analysis uses both flexible two and four state hazard models. The two state hazard model is used to examine various indicators of SES on health (defined as mortality or the risk of death), including wealth and self reported health conditions. The four state is one in a class of models known as "couple models" (Mare & Palloni 1988), which allow for the controls of within, cross, and shared effects, further allowing this study to look at the possible interactive effects of SES on health between two people who are related.;The data used for this study come from the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics, which is a longitudinal survey of American households starting in 1968 and continues to present. I focus on the years the panel collected data on wealth (both including and excluding home equity) and self reported health. Results indicate that income, wealth, and employment status are all important factors in predicting the health of an individual, giving more evidence to the social causation hypothesis of social status and health. Furthermore, the findings from this study advance the marital status and health literature, finding that both income and wealth are important predictors of the woman's health whereas employment status appears important for men within marriage. No significant cross spouse effect was found with the SES measures used.