Suchergebnisse

Abstract
This study investigates gender differences in housing, socioeconomic status, and self-reported health status. The analysis focuses on the social and economic dimensions of housing, such as demand, control, material aspects (affordability, type of dwelling) and meaningful aspects (pride in dwelling, home as a refuge) of everyday life in the domestic environment. A random sample, crosssectional telephone survey was administered in the city of Vancouver, Canada in June 1999 (n = 650). Survey items included measures of material and meaningful dimensions of housing, housing satisfaction, and standard measures of socioeconomic status and social support. The main outcome measure was self-reported health (excellent/very good/good vs. fair/poor). A three-stage analysis provides an overall picture of the sample characteristics for male and female respondents, detects significant relations between individual and housing characteristics and self-rated health status, and investigates male-female differences in the factors associated with fair/poor self-rated health. In multivariate analyses, a small number of socioeconomic dimensions of housing were associated with self-rated health status for women. For men, only one attribute of housing was associated with self-rated health: crowding was positively related to poor health, contradicting expectations and the findings for women. The self-reported strain of housework was unrelated to self-rated health for men, bot strongly related to poor health for women. For men and women, satisfaction with social activities increased the likelihood of reporting better health. Future research should focus on the health effects of geodered differences in domestic and paid work, and on home and family roles and the interaction among gender, household crowding, and health.

Public health in the early 21st century increasingly considers how social inequalities impact on individual health, moving away from the focus on how disease relates to the individual person. This 'new public health' identifies how social, economic and political factors affect the level and distribution of individual health, through their effects on individual behaviours, the social groups people belong to, the character of relationships to others and the characteristics of the societies in which people live. The rising social inequalities that can be seen in nearly every country in the world today present not just a moral danger, but a mortal danger as well. Social inequality and public health brings together the latest research findings from some of the most respected medical and social scientists in the world. It surveys four pathways to understanding the social determinants of health: differences in individual health behaviours; group advantage and disadvantage; psychosocial factors in individual health; and healthy and unhealthy societies, shedding light on the costs and consequences of today's high-inequality social models. This exciting book brings together leaders in the field discussing their latest research and is a must-read for anyone interested in public health and social inequalities internationally