Journal Article

The Relevance of Objective and Subjective Social Position for Self-Rated Health: A Combined Approach for the Swedish Context

Miething, Alexander

2013

Overview

The study investigates the health effects of subjective class position stratified by objective social position. Four types of subjective class were analysed separately for individuals with manual or non-manual occupational background. The cross-sectional analysis is based on the Swedish Level-of-Living Survey from 2000 and includes 4,139 individuals. The dataset comprises information on perceived class affinity and occupational position that was combined to conduct logistic regression models on self-rated health. An inverse relationship between self-rated health and the eight combinations of objective and subjective social position was found. Lower socio-economic position was associated with poor health. The largest adverse health effects were found for lower subjective social position in combination with lower occupational position. When the covariates education, father's occupational position and income were added to the model, adverse effects on health remained only for females. Subjective social position helps to explain health inequalities. Substantial gender differences were found. It can be assumed that subjective class position captures a wide range of perceived inequalities and therefore complements the measure of occupational position.

• Publisher: Springer,Springer Netherlands,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Affinity / Biological and medical sciences / Case Studies / Child Health / Class / Classes, stratification, mobility / Correlation / Cross-sectional analysis / Cross-sectional studies / Education / Egalitarianism / Employment / Employment Level / Fathers / Females / Foreign Countries / Gender Differences / Gender differentiation / Health / Health disparities / Health inequalities / Health inequality / Health outcomes / Health risks / Health status / Human Geography / Income / Income inequality / Inequality / Logistic regression / Logistics / Low Income Groups / Medical sciences / Men / Microeconomics / Middle class / National Surveys / Objective social position / Objectives / Occupational Information / Occupational structure / Occupations / Perceptions / Public Health / Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine / Quality of Life Research / Regression (Statistics) / Relative deprivation / Research Design / Self evaluation / Self-rated health / Sex Differences / Side effects / Social Class / Social classes / Social Indicators / Social inequality / Social organization. Social system. Social structure / Social Sciences / Social Status / Society / Socioeconomic Background / Socioeconomic factors / Socioeconomic Status / Socioeconomics / Sociology / Subjective social position / Subjectivity / Sweden / Variables / Womens health / Working class