Relations among Socioeconomic Status Indicators and Health for African-Americans and Whites

Abstract

This investigation explored the relationship of socioeconomic status (SES) to physical and mental health in two nationally representative samples of whites and African-Americans. We examined the interrelations among SES variables and assessed their contribution to health for the two racial groups. Throughout, we assessed the contribution of a less traditional indicator of SES—wealth—in the SES–health relationship. As we expected, African-Americans had lower levels of education, household income, and wealth than whites. Unexpectedly, however, the strength of the interrelationships among the three SES indicators did not differ for African-Americans and whites. In addition, we found that SES operated to affect health in a very similar fashion for African-Americans and whites. We found that wealth, in addition to more traditional indicators of SES (education and household income), made a unique and significant contribution to explaining both physical and mental health. Examining relations of different SES indicators to health across groups is critical to eliminating persistent social inequalities in health.