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The associations of household wealth and income with self-rated health - A study on economic advantage in middle-aged Finnish men and women

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  • Aittomäki, Akseli
  • Martikainen, Pekka
  • Laaksonen, Mikko
  • Lahelma, Eero
  • Rahkonen, Ossi

Abstract

The economic resources available to an individual or a household have been hypothesised to affect health through the direct material effects of living conditions as well as through social comparison and experiences of deprivation. The focus so far has been mainly on current individual or household income, and there is a lack of studies on wealth, a potentially relevant part of household resources. We studied the associations of household wealth and household income with self-rated health, and addressed some theoretical issues related to economic advantage and health. The data were from questionnaire survey of Finnish men and women aged from 45 to 67 years, who were employed by the City of Helsinki from five to seven years before the collection of the data in 2007. We found household wealth to have a strong and consistent association with self-rated health, poor health decreasing with increasing wealth. The relationship was only partly attributable to the association of wealth with employment status, household income, work conditions and health-related behaviour. In contrast, the association of household income with self-rated health was greatly attenuated by taking into account employment status and wealth, and even further attenuated by work conditions. The results suggested a significant contribution of wealth differentials to differences in health status. The insufficiency of current income as the only measure of material welfare was demonstrated. Conditions associated with long-term accumulation of material welfare may be a significant aspect of the causal processes that lead to socioeconomic inequalities in ill health.

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  • Aittomäki, Akseli & Martikainen, Pekka & Laaksonen, Mikko & Lahelma, Eero & Rahkonen, Ossi, 2010. "The associations of household wealth and income with self-rated health - A study on economic advantage in middle-aged Finnish men and women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(5), pages 1018-1026, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:71:y:2010:i:5:p:1018-1026
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    3. Maite Blázquez & Santiago Budría, 2018. "The Effects of Over-indebtedness on Individual Health," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 227(4), pages 103-131, December.
    4. Aittomäki, Akseli & Martikainen, Pekka & Laaksonen, Mikko & Lahelma, Eero & Rahkonen, Ossi, 2012. "Household economic resources, labour-market advantage and health problems – A study on causal relationships using prospective register data," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(7), pages 1303-1310.
    5. Anne Marie Kavanagh & Zoe Aitken & Lauren Krnjacki & Anthony Daniel LaMontagne & Rebecca Bentley & Allison Milner, 2015. "Mental Health Following Acquisition of Disability in Adulthood—The Impact of Wealth," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(10), pages 1-13, October.
    6. Tian, Wei-Hua & Liu, Tsai-Ching & Chen, Chin-Shyan & Liu, Li-Fan & Tien, Joseph J., 2012. "The relationship between depressive symptoms and health service utilization for elderly people in Taiwan," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(2), pages 256-267.
    7. Aittomäki, Akseli & Martikainen, Pekka & Rahkonen, Ossi & Lahelma, Eero, 2014. "Household income and health problems during a period of labour-market change and widening income inequalities – A study among the Finnish population between 1987 and 2007," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 84-92.
    8. Maite Blázquez & Ana I. Moro Egido, 2020. "Financial insecurity and subjective well-being. Europe in crossnational perspective," ThE Papers 20/07, Department of Economic Theory and Economic History of the University of Granada..
    9. Garth Kendall & Ha Trong Nguyen & Rachel Ong, 2017. "The impact of differentiated access to income and wealth on health and wellbeing outcomes: a longitudinal Australian study," Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre Working Paper series WP1701, Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School.
    10. Lee, Miaw-Chwen & Huang, Nicole, 2015. "Changes in self-perceived economic satisfaction and mortality at old ages: Evidence from a survey of middle-aged and elderly adults in Taiwan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 1-8.
    11. Blázquez, Maite & Budría, Santiago & Moro-Egido, Ana I., 2020. "Over-indebtedness and age: The effects on individual health," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    12. Guillem López-Casasnovas & Marc Saez, 2020. "Saved by Wealth? Income, Wealth, and Self-Perceived Health in Spain during the Financial Crisis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-20, September.
    13. Ana I. Moro Egido, 2021. "Social Comparisons; the behavioural component," ThE Papers 21/04, Department of Economic Theory and Economic History of the University of Granada..
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