Fundamental Causes of Health Disparities: Associations between Adverse Socioeconomic Resources and Multiple Measures of Health

Abstract

Purpose

This study tests the first two tenets of the fundamental causes theory – that socioeconomic status influences a variety of risk factors for poor health and that it affects multiple health outcomes – by examining the associations between adverse socioeconomic circumstances and five measures of health.

Methodology/approach

We employ bivariate and logistic regression analyses of data from the Centers Disease Control and Prevention 2011 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS) to test the individual and cumulative associations between three measures of socioeconomic position and five measures of health risk factors and outcomes.

Findings

The analysis demonstrates support for the fundamental causes theory, indicating that measures of adverse socioeconomic conditions have independent and cumulative associations with multiple health outcomes and risk factors among U.S. adults aged 18–64.

Research limitations/implications

The findings of this chapter are generalizable to adults aged 18–64 living in the United States and may not apply to individuals living outside the United States, older Americans, and children.

Originality/value of chapter

Adverse socioeconomic circumstances are not only associated with self-rated health but are also associated with the two leading causes of death in the United States (cancer and heart disease) and risk factors that contribute to these causes of death (smoking and high blood pressure). Improving access to socioeconomic resources is critical to reducing health disparities in leading causes of death and health risk factors in the United States.

Citation

Kerstetter, K. and Green, J.J. (2014), "Fundamental Causes of Health Disparities: Associations between Adverse Socioeconomic Resources and Multiple Measures of Health", Technology, Communication, Disparities and Government Options in Health and Health Care Services (Research in the Sociology of Health Care, Vol. 32), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 237-257. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0275-495920140000032022