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Socioeconomic status and health in the Japanese population

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  • Kagamimori, Sadanobu
  • Gaina, Alexandru
  • Nasermoaddeli, Ali

Abstract

There is growing interest in the influence of socioeconomic status (SES) on health. Individual SES has been shown to be closely related to mortality, morbidity, health-related behavior and access to health care services in Western countries. Whether the same set of social determinants accounts for higher rates of mortality or morbidity in Japan is questionable, because over the past decade the magnitude of the social stratification within the society has increased due to economic and social circumstances. SES must be interpreted within the economic, social, demographic and cultural contexts of a specific country. In this report we discuss the impact of individuals' socioeconomic position on health in Japan with regard to educational attainment, occupational gradient/class, income level, and unemployment. This review is based mainly on papers indexed in Medline/PubMed between 1990 and 2007. We find that socioeconomic differences in mortality, morbidity and risk factors are not uniformly small in Japan. The majority of papers investigate the relationship between education, occupational class and health, but low income and unemployment are not examined sufficiently in Japan. The results also indicate that different socioeconomic contexts and inequality contribute to the mortality, morbidity, and biological and behavioral risk factors in Japan, although the pattern and direction of the relationships may not necessarily be the same in terms of size, pattern, distribution, magnitude and impact as in Western countries. In particular, the association between higher occupational status and lower mortality, as well as higher educational attainment and either mortality or morbidity, is not as strongly expressed among the Japanese. Japan is still one of the healthiest and most egalitarian nations in the world, and social inequalities within the population are less expressed. However, the magnitude of the social stratification has started to increase, and this is an alarming sign.

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  • Kagamimori, Sadanobu & Gaina, Alexandru & Nasermoaddeli, Ali, 2009. "Socioeconomic status and health in the Japanese population," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(12), pages 2152-2160, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:68:y:2009:i:12:p:2152-2160
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    3. Shinjo, Daisuke & Aramaki, Toshiharu, 2012. "Geographic distribution of healthcare resources, healthcare service provision, and patient flow in Japan: A cross sectional study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(11), pages 1954-1963.
    4. Duncan Gillespie & Meredith Trotter & Shripad Tuljapurkar, 2014. "Divergence in Age Patterns of Mortality Change Drives International Divergence in Lifespan Inequality," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(3), pages 1003-1017, June.
    5. Nakamura, Sayaka, 2014. "Parental income and child health in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 42-55.
    6. Nishikitani, Mariko & Tsurugano, Shinobu & Inoue, Mariko & Yano, Eiji, 2012. "Effect of unequal employment status on workers’ health: Results from a Japanese national survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(3), pages 439-451.
    7. Tasuku Okui, 2020. "Socioeconomic Disparities in All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality Rates among Municipalities in Japan, 1999–2019," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-11, December.
    8. Hiyoshi, Ayako & Fukuda, Yoshiharu & Shipley, Martin J. & Brunner, Eric J., 2014. "Health inequalities in Japan: The role of material, psychosocial, social relational and behavioural factors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 201-209.
    9. Bibha Dhungel & Tomoe Murakami & Koji Wada & Shunya Ikeda & Stuart Gilmour, 2022. "Difference in Mortality Rates by Occupation in Japanese Male Workers Aged 25 to 64 Years from 1980 to 2015," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-11, September.
    10. Tabuchi, Takahiro & Fukuhara, Hiroyuki & Iso, Hiroyasu, 2012. "Geographically-based discrimination is a social determinant of mental health in a deprived or stigmatized area in Japan: A cross-sectional study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(6), pages 1015-1021.
    11. Asami Ota & Naoki Kondo & Nobuko Murayama & Naohito Tanabe & Yugo Shobugawa & Katsunori Kondo & Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES) group, 2016. "Serum Albumin Levels and Economic Status in Japanese Older Adults," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(6), pages 1-15, June.
    12. Kino, Shiho & Jang, Soong-nang & Takahashi, Shuko & Ebner, Daniel K. & Kawachi, Ichiro, 2020. "Socioeconomic disparities in self-rated health in two East Asian countries: Comparative study between Japan and Korea," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    13. Narimasa Kumagai & Seiritsu Ogura, 2014. "Persistence of physical activity in middle age: a nonlinear dynamic panel approach," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 15(7), pages 717-735, September.
    14. Rong Fu & Haruko Noguchi & Shuhei Kaneko & Akira Kawamura & Cheolmin Kang & Hideto Takahashi & Nanako Tamiya, 2019. "How do cardiovascular diseases harm labor force participation? Evidence of nationally representative survey data from Japan, a super-aged society," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(7), pages 1-16, July.
    15. Seitetsu L Lee & Hideki Hashimoto & Takahide Kohro & Hiromasa Horiguchi & Daisuke Koide & Issei Komuro & Kiyohide Fushimi & Tsutomu Yamazaki & Hideo Yasunaga, 2014. "Influence of Municipality-Level Mean Income on Access to Aortic Valve Surgery: A Cross-Sectional Observational Study under Japan's Universal Health-Care Coverage," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(10), pages 1-8, October.
    16. Yoshiki Ishikawa & Hiromu Nishiuchi & Hana Hayashi & Kasisomayajula Viswanath, 2012. "Socioeconomic Status and Health Communication Inequalities in Japan: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Survey," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(7), pages 1-9, July.
    17. Takaku, Reo, 2020. "Reversal pattern of health inequality: New evidence from a large-scale national survey in Japan," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(11), pages 1254-1262.
    18. Ji-Yeon Shin & Jiseun Lim & Myung Ki & Yeong-Jun Song & Heeran Chun & Dongjin Kim, 2018. "An Assessment of Magnitudes and Patterns of Socioeconomic Inequalities across Various Health Problems: A Large National Cross-Sectional Survey in Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-13, December.
    19. Sakurai, Keiko & Kawakami, Norito & Yamaoka, Kazue & Ishikawa, Hirono & Hashimoto, Hideki, 2010. "The impact of subjective and objective social status on psychological distress among men and women in Japan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 1832-1839, June.

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