Until Death Do Us Part. The Influence of Own and Partner’s Socioeconomic Status on the Health of Spanish Middle-Aged Population

Jordi Gumà and Jeroen Spijker
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Jordi Gumà: Department of Political and Social Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08005 Barcelona, Spain
Jeroen Spijker: Centre for Demographic Studies, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 13, 1-11

Abstract: Objectives: To explore whether the influence of a partner’s socioeconomic status (SES) on health has an additive or a combined effect with the ego’s SES. Methods: With data on 4533 middle-aged (30–59) different-sex couples from the 2012 Spanish sample of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey, we apply separate sex-specific logistic regression models to calculate predicted probabilities of having less than good self-perceived health according to individual and partner’s characteristics separately and combined. Results: Both approaches led to similar results: Having a partner with better SES reduces the probabilities of not having good health. However, the combined approach is more precise in disentangling SES effects. For instance, having a higher educated partner only benefits health among Spanish low-educated men, while men’s health is worse if they have a working spouse. Conversely, women’s health is positively influenced if at least one couple member is economically active. Conclusions: There are significant health differences between individuals according to their own and their partner’s SES in an apparently advantageous population group (i.e., individuals living with a partner). The combinative approach permits obtaining more precise couple-specific SES profiles.

Keywords: partner; self-reported health; socio-economic status; sex differences; EU-SILC; Spain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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