Class inequalities in women's health: combined impact of childhood and adult social class--a study of 630 US women
- PMID: 11429712
- DOI: 10.1038/sj/ph/1900754
Class inequalities in women's health: combined impact of childhood and adult social class--a study of 630 US women
Abstract
To assess contributions of childhood and adult social class to class gradients in women's health, the authors used gender-neutral household measures of class position in a retrospective cohort study of 630 women enrolled in Examination II of the Kaiser Permanente Women Twins Study (1989-1990, Oakland, CA). The age-adjusted odds of reporting fair or poor health was 2.3 times higher (95% confidence interval (CI)=1.2-4.1), using adult class measures, among women categorized as working class vs non-working class/professional. When stratified by childhood social class, however, the elevated risk of fair/poor health among adult working class compared to non-working class/professional women was evident only among those with a non-working class/professional childhood. Similarly, a working class tendency (based on adult class position) towards elevated levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (odds ratio (OR)=1.5, 95% CI=0.9-2.7) and post-load glucose (OR=1.8, 95% CI=1.0-3.3) was apparent only among women who were non-working class in childhood. These results indicate that both childhood and adult class position influence class gradients in women's health in the United States.
Similar articles
-
Lifetime socioeconomic position and twins' health: an analysis of 308 pairs of United States women twins.PLoS Med. 2005 Jul;2(7):e162. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0020162. Epub 2005 Jul 26. PLoS Med. 2005. PMID: 16033303 Free PMC article.
-
Social class and self-reported health status among men and women: what is the role of work organisation, household material standards and household labour?Soc Sci Med. 2004 May;58(10):1869-87. doi: 10.1016/S0277-9536(03)00408-8. Soc Sci Med. 2004. PMID: 15020005
-
Women's health status in Poland in the transition to a market economy.Soc Sci Med. 2002 Mar;54(5):707-26. doi: 10.1016/s0277-9536(01)00104-6. Soc Sci Med. 2002. PMID: 11999488
-
Comparing individual-based and household-based measures of social class to assess class inequalities in women's health: a methodological study of 684 US women.J Epidemiol Community Health. 1999 Oct;53(10):612-23. doi: 10.1136/jech.53.10.612. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1999. PMID: 10616673 Free PMC article.
-
Adult female twins' recall of childhood social class and father's education: a validation study for public health research.Am J Epidemiol. 1998 Apr 1;147(7):704-8. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a009512. Am J Epidemiol. 1998. PMID: 9554610
Cited by
-
Towards inclusive migrant healthcare.BMJ. 2019 Sep 16;366:l4256. doi: 10.1136/bmj.l4256. BMJ. 2019. PMID: 31527055 Free PMC article.
-
Socio-economic status over the life course and obesity: Systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS One. 2017 May 16;12(5):e0177151. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0177151. eCollection 2017. PLoS One. 2017. PMID: 28510579 Free PMC article. Review.
-
Gender inequality: Bad for men's health.South Afr J HIV Med. 2013 Jan 1;14(1):12-14. doi: 10.7196/SAJHIVMED.894. South Afr J HIV Med. 2013. PMID: 24078805 Free PMC article.
-
Unfavourable life-course social gradient of coronary heart disease within Spain: a low-incidence welfare-state country.Int J Public Health. 2013 Feb;58(1):65-77. doi: 10.1007/s00038-012-0374-9. Epub 2012 Jun 7. Int J Public Health. 2013. PMID: 22674376
-
Associations between childhood socioeconomic position and adulthood obesity.Epidemiol Rev. 2009;31:21-51. doi: 10.1093/epirev/mxp006. Epub 2009 Jul 31. Epidemiol Rev. 2009. PMID: 19648176 Free PMC article. Review.
Publication types
MeSH terms
Grants and funding
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
Medical
