Article Text
Abstract
Background: Socioeconomic inequalities in health are ubiquitous in developed countries; however, whether these inequalities differ between women and men over time is less clear.
Objective: To estimate the potentially different health effects of changes in socioeconomic position (SEP) on changes in health for working-age women and men over a 10-year period. Three main questions were addressed: (1) are there health differences between women and men over time, (2) do changes in SEP lead to health inequalities and (3) do changes in SEP impact health differently for women and men?
Methods: Generalised estimating equations models were used to analyse cycles 1–5 of the Canadian National Population Health Survey for four measures of health, number of chronic conditions, self-rated health, functional health and mental distress, and three measures of SEP, income, education and employment status.
Results: Health inequalities by sex/gender and by changes in SEP were present for all four outcomes in age-adjusted models; however, after controlling for time-dependent social structure, behaviour, and psychosocial factors the relationships persisted only for chronic conditions and psychological distress. There was no evidence that these effects differed, over time, between women and men.
Conclusions: Men and women in this nationally representative sample of Canadians do not differentially embody changes in SEP, although both sex/gender and changes in SEP independently impact health.
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Footnotes
▸ An additional appendix is published online only at http://jech.bmj.com/content/vol62/issue12
Funding: S L, Master’s Training Award provided by Fonds de la recherche en santé Québec; Fellowship Award provided by the Québec Inter-University Centre for Social Statistics Matching Grants Program; Top-up Grant provided by Canadian Institutes of Health Research operating grant MOP-77800 (PI: A Q-V). A Q-V, Canadian Institutes of Health Research operating grant MOP-77800; Career award (Chercheur-boursier Junior 1) provided by Fonds de la recherche en santé Québec.
Competing interests: None.
Ethics approval: Ethics approval was obtained from McGill University's Faculty of Medicine Institutional Review Board.
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