Until Death Do Us Part. The Influence of Own and Partner's Socioeconomic Status on the Health of Spanish Middle-Aged Population

Overview

Journal Int J Environ Res Public Health

Publisher MDPI

Specialties Environmental Health
Public Health

Date 2020 Jul 2

PMID 32605200

Citations 1

Authors

Jordi Guma

Jeroen Spijker

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objectives: To explore whether the influence of a partner's socioeconomic status (SES) on health has an additive or a combined effect with the ego's SES.

Methods: With data on 4533 middle-aged (30-59) different-sex couples from the 2012 Spanish sample of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey, we apply separate sex-specific logistic regression models to calculate predicted probabilities of having less than good self-perceived health according to individual and partner's characteristics separately and combined.

Results: Both approaches led to similar results: Having a partner with better SES reduces the probabilities of not having good health. However, the combined approach is more precise in disentangling SES effects. For instance, having a higher educated partner only benefits health among Spanish low-educated men, while men's health is worse if they have a working spouse. Conversely, women's health is positively influenced if at least one couple member is economically active.

Conclusions: There are significant health differences between individuals according to their own and their partner's SES in an apparently advantageous population group (i.e., individuals living with a partner). The combinative approach permits obtaining more precise couple-specific SES profiles.

Citing Articles

The Influence of Economic Factors on the Relationship between Partnership Status and Health: A Gender Approach to the Spanish Case.

Guma-Lao J Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022; 19(5).

PMID: 35270668 PMC: 8910377. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19052975.

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