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Socioeconomic Position, Lifestyle and Health Among Canadians Aged 18 to 64: A Multi-Condition Approach

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Abstract

Although a sizeable literature documents the link between socioeconomic position and health in Britain and the United States, much less work has been conducted in Canada. Moreover, what work has been done has been limited to single outcomes such as self-rated health or age-adjusted mortality. Very little has been conducted using multiple health outcomes, although doing so has been advocated. Using the 1991 General Social Survey on Health, we extended an earlier analysis to explore whether or not “condition-specific” relationships exist between socioeconomic position, lifestyle, and health among working age Canadians. We distinguished four patterns in terms of education and income adequacy. The effects of occupation did not fit into any simple pattern. Measures of lifestyle appear to mediate the relationship between education and morbidity, but not between income adequacy and morbidity. Findings are discussed in terms of the theoretical, methodological and policy implications of a condition-specific approach.

Résumé

Alors que le lien entre le statut socioéconomique et la santé a fait l’objet de très nombreuses études tant au Royaume-Uni qu’aux États-Unis, on ne peut pas en dire autant pour le Canada. En outre, les quelques études qui ont été faites ont été limitées à des résultats spécifiques comme l’auto-évaluation de la santé ou la mortalité ajustée selon l’âge. Peu d’études ont été faites pour mesurer de multiples résultats de santé en dépit du fait qu’on l’ait préconisé. Sur base de l’Enquête sociale générale sur la santé de 1991, nous avons élargi le champ d’une analyse antérieure pour voir s’il existe ou non des relations «propres à des conditions spécifiques» entre la position socio-économique, le style de vie et la santé au sein de la population active du Canada. Nous avons observé quatre schémas en termes d’éducation et de niveau suffisant de revenu. Les effets de l’activité professionnelle ne cadraient avec aucun schéma. Les mesures relatives au style de vie sont apparus comme constituant une variable intermédiaire dans la relation entre l’éducation et la morbidité, mais pas entre le niveau suffisant de revenu et la morbidité. Les résultats sont présentés en termes d’implications théoriques, méthodologiques et politiques d’une approche propre à une condition spécifique.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Health and Well-Being, Department of Sociology, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 5B9, Canada

    John Cairney MA

  2. Department of Sociology, Queen’s University, Canada

    Robert Arnold PhD

Authors
  1. John Cairney MA
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  2. Robert Arnold PhD
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Correspondence to John Cairney MA.

Additional information

Source of support: John Cairney was supported by a Fellowship from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Centre for Health and Well-Being at the University of Western Ontario.

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Cairney, J., Arnold, R. Socioeconomic Position, Lifestyle and Health Among Canadians Aged 18 to 64: A Multi-Condition Approach. Can J Public Health 89, 208–212 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03404476

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03404476

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