Socioeconomic position, lifestyle and health among Canadians aged 18 to 64: A multi-condition approach

Abstract

Although a sizeable literature documents the link between socioeconomic position and health in Britain and the United States, much less work has been conducted in Canada. Moreover, what work has been done has been limited to single outcomes such as self-rated health or age-adjusted mortality. Very little has been conducted using multiple health outcomes, although doing so has been advocated. Using the 1991 General Social Survey on Health, we extended an earlier analysis to explore whether or not 'condition-specific' relationships exist between socioeconomic position, lifestyle, and health among working age Canadians. We distinguished four patterns in terms of education and income adequacy. The effects of occupation did not fit into any simple pattern. Measures of lifestyle appear to mediate the relationship between education and morbidity, but not between income adequacy and morbidity. Findings are discussed in terms of the theoretical, methodological and policy implications of a condition-specific approach.