Suchergebnisse

This chapter reviews recent studies of socioeconomic status (SES) and racial differences in health. It traces patterns of the social distribution of disease over time and describes the evidence for both a widening SES differential in health status and an increasing racial gap in health between blacks and whites due, in part, to the worsening health status of the African American population. We also describe variations in health status within and between other racial populations. The interactions between SES and race are examined, and we explore the link between health inequalities and socioeconomic inequality both by examining the nature of the SES gradient and by identifying the determinants of the magnitude of SES disparities over time. We consider the ways in which major social structures and processes such as racism, acculturation, work, migration, and childhood SES produce inequalities in health. We also attend to the ways in which other intervening factors and resources are constrained by social structure. Measurement issues are addressed, and implications for health policy and future research are described.

Results from estimated earnings functions for samples of males and females from the NLS Youth Cohort indicate that, among 18-25 year-olds, obese females earn more than 12% less than comparable nonobese females. No significant effect of obesity is found in males. (Abstract amended)

Examines the impact that state-level equal rights legislation enacted in the early 1970s has had on the female to male earnings ratio, using data from the 1980 and 1970 Censuses. Results suggest that the earnings ratio is 3.2 percentage points higher in equal rights legislation states than in other states, after controlling for female/male-productivity-related occupational, and personal differences, supporting the view that this legislation has been at least modestly successful in limiting gender-based earnings differentials. (Original abstract--Amended)

Race is an unscientific, societally constructed taxonomy that is based on an ideology that views some human population groups as inherently superior to others on the basis of external physical characteristics or geographic origin. The concept of race is socially meaningful but of limited biological significance. Racial or ethnic variations in health status result primarily from variations among races in exposure or vulnerability to behavioral, psychosocial, material, and environmental risk factors and resources. Additional data that capture the specific factors that contribute to group differences in disease must be collected. However, reductions in racial disparities in health will ultimately require change in the larger societal institutions and structures that determine exposure to pathogenic conditions. More attention needs to be given to the ways that racism, in its multiple forms, affects health status. Socio-economic status is a central determinant of health status, overlaps the concept of race, but is not equivalent to race. Inadequate attention has been given to the range of variation in social, cultural, and health characteristics within and between racial or ethnic minority populations. There is a growing emphasis, both within and without the Federal Government, on the collection of racial or ethnic identifiers in health data systems, but noncoverage of the Asian and Pacific Islander population, Native Americans, and subgroups of the Hispanic population is still a major problem. However, for all racial or ethnic groups, we need not only more data but better data. We must be more active in directly measuring the health-related aspects of belonging to these social categories.