IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v65y2007i7p1372-1385.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Socioeconomic differences in health among older adults in Mexico

Author

Listed:
  • Smith, Kimberly V.
  • Goldman, Noreen

Abstract

Although the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and health is well-established in Western industrialized countries, few studies have examined this association in developing countries, particularly among older cohorts. We use the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS), a nationally representative survey of Mexicans age 50 and older, to investigate the linkages between three indicators of SES (education, income, and wealth) and a set of health outcomes and behaviors in more and less urban areas of Mexico. We consider three measures of current health (self-rated health and two measures of physical functioning) and three behavioral indicators (obesity, smoking, and alcohol consumption). In urban areas, we find patterns similar to those in industrialized countries: higher SES individuals are more likely to report better health than their lower SES counterparts, regardless of the SES measure considered. In contrast, we find few significant SES-health associations in less urban areas. The results for health behaviors are generally similar between the two areas of residence. One exception is the education-obesity relationship. Our results suggest that education is a protective factor for obesity in urban areas and a risk factor in less urban areas. Contrary to patterns in the industrialized world, income is associated with higher rates of obesity, smoking, and excessive alcohol consumption. We also evaluate age and sex differences in the SES-health relationship among older Mexicans. The results suggest that further economic development in Mexico may lead to a widening of socioeconomic inequalities in health. The study also provides insight into why socioeconomic gradients in health are weak among Mexican-Americans and underscores the importance of understanding health inequalities in Latin America for research on Hispanic health patterns in the US.

Suggested Citation

  • Smith, Kimberly V. & Goldman, Noreen, 2007. "Socioeconomic differences in health among older adults in Mexico," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(7), pages 1372-1385, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:65:y:2007:i:7:p:1372-1385
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(07)00285-7
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Winkleby, M.A. & Jatulis, D.E. & Frank, E. & Fortmann, S.P., 1992. "Socioeconomic status and health: How education, income, and occupation contribute to risk factors for cardiovascular disease," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 82(6), pages 816-820.
    2. Deaton, Angus S & Paxson, Christina H, 1998. "Aging and Inequality in Income and Health," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(2), pages 248-253, May.
    3. Duncan, G.J. & Daly, M.C. & McDonough, P. & Williams, D.R., 2002. "Optimal indicators of socioeconomic status for health research," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 92(7), pages 1151-1157.
    4. Zimmer, Zachary & Amornsirisomboon, Pattama, 2001. "Socioeconomic status and health among older adults in Thailand: an examination using multiple indicators," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 52(8), pages 1297-1311, April.
    5. Goldman, N. & Kimbro, R.T. & Turra, C.M. & Pebley, A.R., 2006. "Socioeconomic gradients in health for White and Mexican-origin populations," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 96(12), pages 2186-2193.
    6. Huisman, Martijn & Kunst, Anton E. & Mackenbach, Johan P., 2003. "Socioeconomic inequalities in morbidity among the elderly; a European overview," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(5), pages 861-873, September.
    7. World Bank, 2005. "Income Generation and Social Protection for the Poor," World Bank Publications - Reports 8815, The World Bank Group.
    8. Jersey Liang & John F. McCarthy & Arvind Jain & Neal Krause & Joan M. Bennett & Shengzu Gu, 2000. "Socioeconomic Gradient in Old Age Mortality in Wuhan, China," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 55(4), pages 222-233.
    9. Christopher Winship & Larry Radbill, 1994. "Sampling Weights and Regression Analysis," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 23(2), pages 230-257, November.
    10. World Bank, 2005. "Mexico - Income Generation and Social Protection for the Poor : Volume 2. Urban Poverty in Mexico," World Bank Publications - Reports 8305, The World Bank Group.
    11. Cassio M. Turra & Noreen Goldman, 2007. "Socioeconomic Differences in Mortality Among U.S. Adults: Insights Into the Hispanic Paradox," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 62(3), pages 184-192.
    12. Marmot, Michael & Ryff, Carol D. & Bumpass, Larry L. & Shipley, Martin & Marks, Nadine F., 1997. "Social inequalities in health: Next questions and converging evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 44(6), pages 901-910, March.
    13. Duncan, G.J. & Daly, M.C. & McDonogh, P. & Williams, D.R., 2002. "Erratum: Optimal indicators of socioeconomic status for health research (American Journal of Public Health (2002) 92 (1151-1157))," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 92(8), pages 1212-1212.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hiram Beltran-Sanchez & Noreen Goldman & Anne Pebley & Josefina Flores Morales, 2020. "Calloused hands, shorter life? Occupation and older-age survival in Mexico," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 42(32), pages 875-900.
    2. DeGraff, Deborah S. & Wong, Rebeca, 2014. "Modeling old-age wealth with endogenous early-life outcomes: The case of Mexico," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 3(C), pages 58-70.
    3. Levasseur, Pierre, 2015. "Causal effects of socioeconomic status on central adiposity risks: Evidence using panel data from urban Mexico," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 136, pages 165-174.
    4. Grace Lordan & Eliana Jimenez Soto & Richard P. C. Brown & Ignacio Correa‐Valez, 2012. "Socioeconomic status and health outcomes in a developing country," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(2), pages 178-186, February.
    5. Eliana Jimenez & Ignacio Correa-Valez & Richard P.C. Brown, 2008. "Wealthy and Healthy in the South Pacific," Discussion Papers Series 378, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    6. Pierre Levasseur, 2019. "Can social programs break the vicious cycle between poverty and obesity?," Post-Print hal-02450319, HAL.
    7. Peng Nie & Qing Li & Alan A. Cohen & Alfonso Sousa-Poza, 2021. "In search of China’s income-health gradient: a biomarker-based analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(48), pages 5599-5618, October.
    8. Fenelon, Andrew, 2013. "Revisiting the Hispanic mortality advantage in the United States: The role of smoking," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 1-9.
    9. Jose A. Valderrama & Javier Olivera, 2023. "The effects of social pensions on mortality among the extreme poor elderly," Documentos de Trabajo / Working Papers 2023-525, Departamento de Economía - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.
    10. Carolina Perez Ferrer & Anne McMunn & Juan A Rivera Dommarco & Eric J Brunner, 2014. "Educational Inequalities in Obesity among Mexican Women: Time-Trends from 1988 to 2012," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(3), pages 1-8, March.
    11. Yahirun, Jenjira J. & Sheehan, Connor M. & Hayward, Mark D., 2017. "Adult children's education and changes to parents' physical health in Mexico," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 93-101.
    12. Cheng, Lingguo & Liu, Hong & Zhang, Ye & Zhao, Zhong, 2018. "The health implications of social pensions: Evidence from China's new rural pension scheme," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 53-77.
    13. Qingyuan Xue & Nopphol Witvorapong, 2022. "Effects of Socioeconomic Status on Aging People’s Health in China," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 476-488, September.
    14. Hiram Beltrán-Sánchez & Alberto Palloni & Fernando Riosmena & Rebeca Wong, 2016. "SES Gradients Among Mexicans in the United States and in Mexico: A New Twist to the Hispanic Paradox?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(5), pages 1555-1581, October.
    15. Ajay Mahal & Lainie Sutton, 2014. "Economic prosperity and non-communicable disease: understanding the linkages," Chapters, in: Raghbendra Jha & Raghav Gaiha & Anil B. Deolalikar (ed.), Handbook on Food, chapter 12, pages 278-324, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    16. Arokiasamy, Perianayagam & Uttamacharya, Uttamacharya & Kowal, Paul, 2013. "Socioeconomic and age gradients of health of Indian adults: an assessment of self-reported and performance-based measures of health," MPRA Paper 54912, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Feb 2014.
    17. LEVASSEUR Pierre, 2015. "Causal effects of socioeconomic status on central adiposity: Evidence using panel data from urban Mexico," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2015-09, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    18. Hessel, Philipp & Sayer, Pieter & Riumallo-Herl, Carlos, 2020. "Educational inequalities in disability linked to social security coverage among older individuals in five Latin American countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    19. Biggs, Brian & King, Lawrence & Basu, Sanjay & Stuckler, David, 2010. "Is wealthier always healthier? The impact of national income level, inequality, and poverty on public health in Latin America," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 266-273, July.
    20. Levasseur, Pierre, 2019. "Can social programs break the vicious cycle between poverty and obesity? Evidence from urban Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 143-156.
    21. Buttenheim, Alison & Goldman, Noreen & Pebley, Anne R. & Wong, Rebeca & Chung, Chang, 2010. "Do Mexican immigrants "import" social gradients in health to the US?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(7), pages 1268-1276, October.
    22. Farzad Masoudkabir & Nafiseh Toghianifar & Mohammad Talaie & Masoumeh Sadeghi & Nizal Sarrafzadegan & Nooshin Mohammadifard & Tom Marshall & G. Thomas, 2012. "Socioeconomic status and incident cardiovascular disease in a developing country: findings from the Isfahan cohort study (ICS)," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 57(3), pages 561-568, June.
    23. Stoddard, Pamela & Handley, Margaret A. & Vargas Bustamante, Arturo & Schillinger, Dean, 2011. "The influence of indigenous status and community indigenous composition on obesity and diabetes among Mexican adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(11), pages 1635-1643.
    24. Goldman, Noreen & Turra, Cassio M. & Rosero-Bixby, Luis & Weir, David & Crimmins, Eileen, 2011. "Do biological measures mediate the relationship between education and health: A comparative study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 307-315, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Torssander, Jenny & Erikson, Robert, 2008. "Stratification and Mortality - A Comparison of Education, Class, Status and Income," Working Paper Series 5/2008, Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research.
    2. Prus, Steven G., 2011. "Comparing social determinants of self-rated health across the United States and Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 50-59, July.
    3. Steven Prus, 2007. "Age, SES, and Health: A Population Level Analysis of Health Inequalities over the Life Course," Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Papers 181, McMaster University.
    4. Buttenheim, Alison & Goldman, Noreen & Pebley, Anne R. & Wong, Rebeca & Chung, Chang, 2010. "Do Mexican immigrants "import" social gradients in health to the US?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(7), pages 1268-1276, October.
    5. Hoffmann, Rasmus & Kröger, Hannes & Tarkiainen, Lasse & Martikainen, Pekka, 2019. "Dimensions of Social Stratification and Their Relation to Mortality: A Comparison Across Gender and Life Course Periods in Finland," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 145(1), pages 349-365.
    6. Zimmer, Zachary, 2008. "Poverty, wealth inequality and health among older adults in rural Cambodia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 57-71, January.
    7. van Hooijdonk, Carolien & Droomers, Mariël & van Loon, Jeanne A.M. & van der Lucht, Fons & Kunst, Anton E., 2007. "Exceptions to the rule: Healthy deprived areas and unhealthy wealthy areas," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(6), pages 1326-1342, March.
    8. Bakshi, Sanjeev & Pathak, Prasanta, 2010. "Social context and the burden of ill health among the older adults in India," MPRA Paper 40463, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Rasmus Hoffmann & Hannes Kröger & Lasse Tarkiainen & Pekka Martikainen, 2019. "Dimensions of Social Stratification and Their Relation to Mortality: A Comparison Across Gender and Life Course Periods in Finland," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 145(1), pages 349-365, August.
    10. Jaffe, Dena H. & Eisenbach, Zvi & Neumark, Yehuda D. & Manor, Orly, 2006. "Effects of husbands' and wives' education on each other's mortality," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(8), pages 2014-2023, April.
    11. Barik, Debasis & Desai, Sonalde & Vanneman, Reeve, 2018. "Economic Status and Adult Mortality in India: Is the Relationship Sensitive to Choice of Indicators?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 176-187.
    12. Carlos Brambila-Paz, 2017. "Households, Families and Prospective Economic Mobility in Mexico," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 38(4), pages 582-595, December.
    13. Luo, Ye & Zhang, Zhenmei & Gu, Danan, 2015. "Education and mortality among older adults in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 134-142.
    14. Apouey, Bénédicte & Geoffard, Pierre-Yves, 2013. "Family income and child health in the UK," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 715-727.
    15. Theodossiou, I. & Zangelidis, A., 2009. "The social gradient in health: The effect of absolute income and subjective social status assessment on the individual's health in Europe," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 229-237, July.
    16. Mathieu Ichou & Matthew Wallace, 2019. "The Healthy Immigrant Effect: The role of educational selectivity in the good health of migrants," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 40(4), pages 61-94.
    17. Jonathan Zufferey, 2016. "Investigating the migrant mortality advantage at the intersections of social stratification in Switzerland," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 34(32), pages 899-926.
    18. Garbarski, Dana, 2010. "Perceived social position and health: Is there a reciprocal relationship?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(5), pages 692-699, March.
    19. Samuel H. Fishman & S. Philip Morgan & Robert A. Hummer, 2018. "Smoking and Variation in the Hispanic Paradox: A Comparison of Low Birthweight Across 33 US States," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 37(5), pages 795-824, October.
    20. Yunyun Jiang & Haitao Zheng & Tianhao Zhao, 2019. "Socioeconomic Status and Morbidity Rate Inequality in China: Based on NHSS and CHARLS Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-19, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:65:y:2007:i:7:p:1372-1385. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.