 Can subjective and objective socioeconomic status explain minority health disparities in Israel?Orna Baron-Epel and Giora Kaplan Social Science & Medicine, 2009, vol. 69, issue 10, 1460-1467 Abstract: Disparities in health exist between the three main population groups in Israel, non-immigrant Jews, immigrants from the former Soviet Union (arriving in Israel since 1990) and Arabs. This study examines the relationship between health and socioeconomic status in this multicultural population and assesses to what extent subjective and objective socioeconomic measures may explain the disparities in health. AÂ random cross sectional telephone survey of 1004 Israelis aged 35-65 was performed. The questionnaire measured physical and mental health-related quality of life using the Short Form 12. Information regarding subjective socioeconomic status (SSS) and objective socioeconomic status (SES) was collected. Arabs and immigrant women from the former Soviet Union had worse physical health compared to non-immigrant Jews. Immigrant and Arab men and women had worse mental health compared to non-immigrant Jews. Multivariable log-linear regression analysis adjusting for age, SSS or SES explained the disparities in physical health between Arab and non-immigrant Jewish men. However, SSS and SES did not explain the disparities in physical health between the three groups of women. The disparities in mental health between immigrants and non-immigrant Jews can be explained by SSS for both men and women, whereas the disparities between Arabs and Jews can be explained by objective SES only among women. Employed men reported better physical and mental health. Part of the disparities in mental health in Israel can be attributed to differences in SSS and SES in the different groups. However, there is a need to identify additional factors that may add to the disparities in both physical and mental health. The disparities due to socioeconomic status vary by health measure and population group. Keywords: Israel; Disparities; Subjective; socioeconomic; status; Objective; socioeconomic; status; Quality; of; life; Gender; Multicultural (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:69:y:2009:i:10:p:1460-1467 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.