Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #113338

Leigh F. Callahan, PhD¹, Thelma Mielenz, PT, PhD, OCS¹, Kathryn Remmes, MPH¹, Britta L. Schoster, MPH¹, Jay S. Kaufman, PhD², Randy Randolph³, Robert F. Devellis, PhD¹, Philip Sloane, MD⁴, and Morris Weinberger, PhD⁵. (1) Thurston Arthritis Research Center, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 3330 Thurston Building, CB#7280, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, 919-966-0555, leigh_callahan@med.unc.edu, (2) Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2104C McGavran-Greenberg Hall, Pittsboro Road, CB#7400, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7400, (3) Cecil G Sheps Center for Health Services Research, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 725 Airport Rd, CB# 7590, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, (4) Family Medicine, University of North Carolina, CB #7585, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, (5) Health Policy and Administration, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, McGavran-Greenberg, CB# 7411, Chapel Hill, NC 27599

Objective To examine associations between individual and community socioeconomic status (SES) with health status. Methods 4882 consecutive adults at 17 FPS sites completed health status questionnaires. Education (> HS vs. ≤ HS ) measured individual SES. Community SES [deprivation index (DI)] was constructed from ten US Census variables. Health status was assessed by SF-12v2 Physical and Mental Components (PCS, MCS). Covariates included race, gender, and age. Separate models were done for white and non-white participants. Multilevel analyses were performed examining the independent associations of education and DI with the SF-12v2 adjusting for covariates and FPS clustering. Results Unadjusted associations of individual and community SES with health were significant. Multilevel modeling PCS results: 1) Whites with ≤HS degree decreased 3.6 points (p=0.00) on PCS and one unit DI increase resulted in a .25 decrease (p=0.02) on PCS and 2) Non-whites with ≤ HS degree decreased 2.8 points (p=0.00) on PCS and one unit DI increase resulted in a .16 decrease (p=0.26) on the PCS. MCS results: 1) Whites with ≤HS degree decreased 3.0 points (p=0.00) on MCS and a one unit DI increase resulted in a .17 decrease (p=0.12) on MCS and 2) Non-whites with ≤HS degree decreased 2.5 (p=0.01) on MCS and one unit DI increase resulted in a .26 decrease (p=0.08) on MCS. Conclusions In whites, both individual and community SES were independently associated with physical health. Only individual SES was independently associated with mental health. In non-whites, only individual SES was independently associated with physical and mental health.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss how individual level SES impacts individual health.
• Describe the methods used to construct the deprivation index.
• Discuss how community level SES impacts individual health.

Keywords: Social Inequalities,

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation