Skip to main content

Currently Skimming:

4 Socioeconomic Factors
Pages 54-60

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 54...
... THE HEALTH GRADIENT AND RECIPROCAL CAUSATION The influence of socioeconomic status on health is assumed to begin in the prenatal environment and continue through life. Parents' socioeconomic status affects childhood conditions, such as exposure to toxins and infectious agents.
From page 55...
... Though the table does not show it, smaller gains in wealth were associated with less favorable health outcomes. Reciprocal causation has been one of the most difficult issues to deal with in this literature, and it is often ignored or dismissed as a minor factor.
From page 56...
... STATUS, RACE, AND ETHNICITY The health gradient by socioeconomic status is important for racial and ethnic differences because socioeconomic status differs considerably by race and ethnicity. Table 4-2 shows some variations in socioeconomic status among older people.
From page 57...
... . Socioeconomic variations such as these, coupled with similar variations at younger ages, partly explain racial and ethnic differences in a number of health outcomes (Hayward et al., 2000; Smith and Kington, 1997)
From page 58...
... In addition to these individual-level mechanisms, considerable research in the last decade argues that macrolevel socioeconomic factors affect individual health outcomes (Marmot, 2000; Wilkinson, 1997)
From page 59...
... NEEDED RESEARCH Although socioeconomic status is strongly linked to health, many research questions remain about the nature of this linkage and the contribution of socioeconomic status to racial and ethnic health differences. Research Need 6: Clarify the degree to which socioeconomic status accounts for racial and ethnic differences in health outcomes over the life course.
From page 60...
... Research Need 7: Identify the mechanisms through which socio economic status produces racial and ethnic differences in health among the elderly, and identify other factors that complicate its effects. Socioeconomic status may have an effect because of its links to commonly recognized health behaviors, other psychosocial factors, multiple dimensions of access to health care, geographic residence, environmental conditions, and nativity and duration of residence, especially for Hispanics and other immigrant groups.


This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More information on Chapter Skim is available.