IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v61y2005i10p2221-2232.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Health selection in a 14-year follow-up study--A question of gendered discrimination?

Author

Listed:
  • Hammarström, Anne
  • Janlert, Urban

Abstract

Health selection, as one of the several possible explanations for social inequities in health, has been receiving more attention recently but few researchers turn the issue into a question of discrimination. The aim of the study was to analyse the impact of health in young age for social position in adult age and to discuss health selection in terms of discrimination from a gender-theoretical perspective. A prospective cohort study was conducted, in which all pupils (N=1083) in the last year of compulsory school in a middle-sized municipality in northern Sweden were followed for 14 years. The response rate was high, with 96.6% still participating after 14 years. The data were collected through repeated comprehensive self-administered questionnaires as well as through teacher interviews and register data. Health selection was analysed in a multiple logistic regression model, with working-class position at age 30 as a dependent variable and different measures of health/health behaviour at age 16 and 21 as independent variables. Overall, the impact of early health/health behaviour on future socioeconomic position was small or non-existent. However, even after correction for possible mediating and moderating mechanisms, being overweight at age 16 and at age 21 was related to future working-class position among women only. Possible mediating mechanisms were feeling looked down upon, not being active in associations and not reading cultural/political events in daily newspapers. Early menarche together with early motherhood and low education could not explain the correlations. Our results indicate that overweight girls and young women are exposed to gendered discrimination which probably occurs in many arenas, based on the societal norms for female bodies in our society. There is a need to redirect research on health selection into gender research in order to further explore the subject as well as the possible mechanisms of gendered discrimination.

Suggested Citation

  • Hammarström, Anne & Janlert, Urban, 2005. "Health selection in a 14-year follow-up study--A question of gendered discrimination?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(10), pages 2221-2232, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:61:y:2005:i:10:p:2221-2232
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(05)00173-5
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Glendinning, Anthony & Hendry, Leo & Shucksmith, Janet, 1995. "Lifestyle, health and social class in adolescence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 235-248, July.
    2. West, Patrick, 1991. "Rethinking the health selection explanation for health inequalities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 373-384, January.
    3. Koivusilta, Leena & Arja, Rimpelä & Andres, Vikat, 2003. "Health behaviours and health in adolescence as predictors of educational level in adulthood: a follow-up study from Finland," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(4), pages 577-593, August.
    4. Chandola, Tarani & Bartley, Mel & Sacker, Amanda & Jenkinson, Crispin & Marmot, Michael, 2003. "Health selection in the Whitehall II study, UK," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(10), pages 2059-2072, May.
    5. Elstad, Jon Ivar & Krokstad, Steinar, 2003. "Social causation, health-selective mobility, and the reproduction of socioeconomic health inequalities over time: panel study of adult men," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(8), pages 1475-1489, October.
    6. Manor, Orly & Matthews, Sharon & Power, Chris, 2003. "Health selection: the role of inter- and intra-generational mobility on social inequalities in health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(11), pages 2217-2227, December.
    7. McDonough, Peggy & Amick, Benjamin C., 2001. "The social context of health selection: a longitudinal study of health and employment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 135-145, July.
    8. Marmot, Michael & Ryff, Carol D. & Bumpass, Larry L. & Shipley, Martin & Marks, Nadine F., 1997. "Social inequalities in health: Next questions and converging evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 44(6), pages 901-910, March.
    9. Joung, Inez M. A. & van de Mheen, H. Dike & Stronks, Karien & van Poppel, Frans W. A. & Mackenbach, Johan P., 1998. "A longitudinal study of health selection in marital transitions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 425-435, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Heidi Carlerby & Eija Viitasara & Anders Knutsson & Katja Gillander Gådin, 2011. "Subjective health complaints among boys and girls in the Swedish HBSC study: focussing on parental foreign background," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 56(5), pages 457-464, October.
    2. Gustafsson, Per E. & Hammarström, Anne, 2012. "Socioeconomic disadvantage in adolescent women and metabolic syndrome in mid-adulthood: An examination of pathways of embodiment in the Northern Swedish Cohort," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(10), pages 1630-1638.
    3. Hugo Westerlund & Per E Gustafsson & Töres Theorell & Urban Janlert & Anne Hammarström, 2012. "Social Adversity in Adolescence Increases the Physiological Vulnerability to Job Strain in Adulthood: A Prospective Population-Based Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(4), pages 1-8, April.
    4. Susan P Phillips & Anne Hammarström, 2011. "Relative Health Effects of Education, Socioeconomic Status and Domestic Gender Inequity in Sweden: A Cohort Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(6), pages 1-6, June.
    5. Evelina Landstedt & Per Gustafsson & Klara Johansson & Anne Hammarström, 2016. "Longitudinal associations between social relationships at age 30 and internalising symptoms at age 42: findings from the Northern Swedish Cohort," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 61(1), pages 75-81, January.
    6. Requena, Miguel & Reher, David, 2021. "Partnership and mortality in mid and late life: Protection or selection?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 279(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hoffmann, Rasmus & Kröger, Hannes & Geyer, Siegfried, 2019. "Social Causation Versus Health Selection in the Life Course: Does Their Relative Importance Differ by Dimension of SES?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 141(3), pages 1341-1367.
    2. Rasmus Hoffmann & Hannes Kröger & Siegfried Geyer, 2019. "Social Causation Versus Health Selection in the Life Course: Does Their Relative Importance Differ by Dimension of SES?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 141(3), pages 1341-1367, February.
    3. Karin A A De Ridder & Kristine Pape & Roar Johnsen & Turid Lingaas Holmen & Steinar Westin & Johan Håkon Bjørngaard, 2013. "Adolescent Health and High School Dropout: A Prospective Cohort Study of 9000 Norwegian Adolescents (The Young-HUNT)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(9), pages 1-7, September.
    4. Foverskov, Else & Holm, Anders, 2016. "Socioeconomic inequality in health in the British household panel: Tests of the social causation, health selection and the indirect selection hypothesis using dynamic fixed effects panel models," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 172-183.
    5. Hoffmann, Rasmus & Kröger, Hannes & Pakpahan, Eduwin, 2018. "Pathways between socioeconomic status and health: Does health selection or social causation dominate in Europe?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 36, pages 23-36.
    6. Fubaihui Wang & Qingkai Zhen & Kaigang Li & Xu Wen, 2018. "Association of socioeconomic status and health-related behavior with elderly health in China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(9), pages 1-14, September.
    7. Myung Ki & Yvonne Kelly & Amanda Sacker & James Nazroo, 2013. "Poor health, employment transitions and gender: evidence from the British Household Panel Survey," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 58(4), pages 537-546, August.
    8. Tattarini, Giulia & Grotti, Raffaele, 2022. "Gender roles and selection mechanisms across contexts: a comparative analysis of the relationship between unemployment, self‐perceived health and gender," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 44(3), pages 641-662.
    9. Palloni, Alberto & Milesi, Carolina & White, Robert G. & Turner, Alyn, 2009. "Early childhood health, reproduction of economic inequalities and the persistence of health and mortality differentials," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(9), pages 1574-1582, May.
    10. Tøge, Anne Grete & Blekesaune, Morten, 2015. "Unemployment transitions and self-rated health in Europe: A longitudinal analysis of EU-SILC from 2008 to 2011," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 171-178.
    11. Claussen, Bjorgulf & Smits, Jeroen & Naess, Oyvind & Davey Smith, George, 2005. "Intragenerational mobility and mortality in Oslo: Social selection versus social causation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(12), pages 2513-2520, December.
    12. Ning Xu & Chang’an Li, 2023. "Migration and Rural Sustainability: Relative Poverty Alleviation by Geographical Mobility in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-27, April.
    13. Yang Xiao & Yanjie Bian & Lei Zhang, 2020. "Mental Health of Chinese Online Networkers under COVID-19: A Sociological Analysis of Survey Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-17, November.
    14. Hongjo Choi & Haejoo Chung & Carles Muntaner, 2019. "Social selection in historical time: The case of tuberculosis in South Korea after the East Asian financial crisis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(5), pages 1-13, May.
    15. Boyle, Paul J. & Norman, Paul & Popham, Frank, 2009. "Social mobility: Evidence that it can widen health inequalities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(10), pages 1835-1842, May.
    16. Anita Tisch, 2015. "Health, work ability and work motivation: determinants of labour market exit among German employees born in 1959 and 1965 [Gesundheit, Arbeitsfähigkeit und Arbeitsmotivation: Beweggründe für den Er," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 48(3), pages 233-245, October.
    17. Elovainio, Marko & Pulkki-Råback, Laura & Jokela, Markus & Kivimäki, Mika & Hintsanen, Mirka & Hintsa, Taina & Viikari, Jorma & Raitakari, Olli T. & Keltikangas-Järvinen, Liisa, 2012. "Socioeconomic status and the development of depressive symptoms from childhood to adulthood: A longitudinal analysis across 27 years of follow-up in the Young Finns study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(6), pages 923-929.
    18. Lavanya Vijayasingham & Uma Jogulu & Pascale Allotey, 2018. "Enriching the Organizational Context of Chronic Illness Experience Through an Ethics of Care Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(1), pages 29-40, November.
    19. Ana Lucia Abeliansky & Holger Strulik, 2023. "Health and aging before and after retirement," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(4), pages 2825-2855, October.
    20. Gebel, Michael & Voßemer, Jonas, 2014. "The impact of employment transitions on health in Germany. A difference-in-differences propensity score matching approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 128-136.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:61:y:2005:i:10:p:2221-2232. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.