Relationship of Objective and Subjective Socioeconomic Status with Self-rated Health

Background:Social status is an important factor that influences health. People whose social status is low will have bad self-rated health and lifestyle. Other researches which use objective social status indicator or subjective social status indicator show the same pattern. Concerning that there is inconsistency between subjective social status and objective social status, this study want to examinate whether subjective social status will have different influence on self-rated health under the condition of objective social status.

Methods: Data for the analysis came from the Taiwan Social Change Survey consist of 2199 samples. This study analyzed sample A and sample B respectively. This study used logistic regression to test the association between subjective social status and self-rated health after controlling for objective social status and demographic variables such as gender, age, race, marital status and development level of living place. Next, I tested whether subjective social status will have different impact on self-rated health under the condition of objective social status by using stratified analysis.

Results: After controlling for objective social status indicators and demographic varibles, the sample whose subjective social status is high has better self-rated health. Logistic regressions show that the odds ratio in sample A and sample B by high subjective social status are 0.82 and 0.90 for bad self-rated health. Stratified analysis shows that the association between subjective social status and self-rated health is stronger in high objective social status than in low objective social status.

Conclusion: Subjective social status is an important factor that influences health. The strength of association between subjective social status and self-rated health is altered by objective social status. The association is stronger in high objective social status.