Age, health and the measurement of the socio-economic status of individuals

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Abstract
Indicators of socio-economic status (SES) are associated with age. The aim of this paper is to analyse the modifying effects of age on the interpretation of a commonly used SES indicator, education level, in relation to health. A population-based health interview survey was conducted in 1992 and 1993 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Participants were members of the non-institutionalized population aged 16 years and over, selected randomly from the municipal population register after stratification for age and borough (N=5, 121; response rate 61.4%). The relative differences in poor self-rated health between educational levels vary strongly with age group. Among men the risk of poor health for the lowest education level relative to the mean for the age group concerned varies from 1.67 for the 16–34 years age group to 1.10 for the ≥65 years group. Logistic regression indicates that age modifies the relation of education level with self-rated health. We conclude that the interpretation of SES indicators differs by age group, especially if indicators are strongly associated with age. This modifying effect of age on the interpretation of SES needs to be corrected for in research on socio-economic health differences.

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