Is the disease risk associated with good self-reported health constant across the socio-economic spectrum?
Section snippets
Background
There is substantial evidence that self-reported health is strongly predictive of current and subsequent morbidity and mortality.1, 2, 3 In addition, it is well recognized that both self-reported health4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and a variety of markers of disease risk17, 18, 19, 20, 21 vary according to markers of socio-economic position (SEP). Self-reported health is, generally, determined by a relatively simple question in research surveys, and, because of its known
Data source and participants: 1998 HSE26
The HSE has been conducted annually since 1991 and is a nationwide survey that aims to collect regular information on the nation's health.25 The 1998 survey was designed to collect information from a representative sample of individuals aged 2 years or older living in private households in England. Interviewer and nurse visits to individuals' homes resulted in the collection of a wide variety of health and social data. A total of 13,680 households were selected for invitation to take part in
Results
Of the 10,904 individuals eligible for inclusion on the basis of age, full data were available for 9887 (90.7%). The distribution of self-reported health by social class is shown in Table 1. Overall, 7547 (76.3%) individuals reported their health to be good or very good. After controlling for age, social class remained a statistically significant predictor of self-reported health in both men and women (P<0.001 in both cases).
Table 2 shows mean systolic blood pressure and BMI according to social
Discussion
Using data from the 1998 HSE, we have confirmed socio-economic variations in self-reported health, systolic blood pressure and BMI (in women only). Similar findings have been widely reported previously.4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34 We also found strong relationships between self-reported health and both systolic blood pressure (in women only) and BMI. In addition, there was evidence of socio-economic variations in systolic blood pressure and BMI (in women
Acknowledgements
JA was supported by the Faculty of Public Health Medicine/BUPA research fellowship when this research was carried out. The 1998 HSE was conducted by the National Centre for Social Research and the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, UK. The survey is sponsored by the Department of Health and data are distributed by the UK Data Archive, University of Essex, Colchester, UK.
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