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The Measurement of Socio-Economic Status: Investigation of Gender-and Age-Specific Indicators in Australia: National Health Survey 1995

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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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Centre for Gender and Health, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, 2308, Australia

    Gita D. Mishra, Kylie Ball, Annette J. Dobson, Julie E. Byles & Penny Warner-Smith

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  1. Gita D. Mishra
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  2. Kylie Ball
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  3. Annette J. Dobson
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  4. Julie E. Byles
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  5. Penny Warner-Smith
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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

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