The Demographic Correlates of Health Status

Abstract

As an applied treatise on demography and healthcare, this volume is particularly concerned with the demographic correlates of health status and health behavior. The study of health status focuses on the implications of demographic characteristics for the level and nature of morbidity within a population. The study of health behavior focuses on the extent to which demographic characteristics influence the actions of individuals and groups with regard to a range of health-related behaviors. This chapter and the next should provide the means whereby an analyst, knowing something about demographic conditions and prospects for demographic change, can make assumptions concerning the health status and health behavior of a particular population. This chapter focuses on the demographic correlates of health status, while Chap. 11 addresses the implications of demographic attributes for health behavior.