Schöllgen Ina, Huxhold Oliver, Tesch-Römer Clemens
German Centre of Gerontology, Berlin, Germany.
Eur J Ageing. 2010 Mar;7(1):17-28. doi: 10.1007/s10433-010-0140-x. Epub 2010 Feb 4.
This study examined social inequalities in health in the second half of life. Data for empirical analyses came from the second wave of the German Ageing Survey (DEAS), an ongoing population-based, representative study of community dwelling persons living in Germany, aged 40-85 years (N = 2,787). Three different indicators for socioeconomic status (SES; education, income, financial assets as an indicator for wealth) and health (physical, functional and subjective health) were employed. It could be shown that SES was related to health in the second half of life: Less advantaged persons between 40 and 85 years of age had worse health than more advantaged persons. Age gradients varied between status indicators and health dimensions, but in general social inequalities in health were rather stable or increasing over age. The latter was observed for wealth-related absolute inequalities in physical and functional health. Only income-related differences in subjective health decreased at higher ages. The amount of social inequality in health as well as its development over age did not vary by gender and place of residence (East or West Germany). These results suggest that, in Germany, the influence of SES on health remains important throughout the second half of life.
本研究考察了生命后半段的健康方面的社会不平等现象。实证分析的数据来自德国老龄化调查（DEAS）的第二轮，这是一项正在进行的基于人群的、对居住在德国的40 - 85岁社区居民具有代表性的研究（N = 2787）。采用了三种不同的社会经济地位（SES；教育、收入、作为财富指标的金融资产）和健康（身体、功能和主观健康）指标。结果表明，SES与生命后半段的健康相关：40至85岁处于较不利地位的人群的健康状况比处于较有利地位的人群更差。年龄梯度在地位指标和健康维度之间有所不同，但总体而言，健康方面的社会不平等在整个年龄段相当稳定或呈上升趋势。后者在与财富相关的身体和功能健康的绝对不平等中有所体现。只有主观健康方面与收入相关的差异在较高年龄时有所减少。健康方面的社会不平等程度及其随年龄的变化在性别和居住地区（东德或西德）上没有差异。这些结果表明，在德国，SES对健康的影响在生命后半段仍然很重要。
