Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University, 1885 Neil Avenue Mall, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 2012 Dec;75(12):2170-82. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.08.014. Epub 2012 Aug 24.
This study examines the interactive contextual effect of income inequality on health. Specifically, we hypothesize that income inequality will moderate the relationships between individual-level risk factors and health. Using National Health Interview Survey data 1984-2007 (n = 607,959) and U.S. Census data, this paper estimates the effect of the dramatic increase in income inequality in the U.S. over the past two decades on the gradient of socioeconomic status on two measures of health (i.e., physical functioning and activity limitations). Results indicate that increasing income inequality strengthens the protective effects of family income, employment, college education, and marriage on these two measures of health. In contrast, high school education's protective effect (relative to less than a high school education) weakens in the context of increasing income inequality. In addition, we find that increasing income inequality exacerbates men's disadvantages in physical functioning and activity limitations. These findings shed light on research about growing health disparities in the U.S. in the last several decades.
这项研究考察了收入不平等对健康的交互语境效应。具体而言，我们假设收入不平等将调节个体风险因素与健康之间的关系。本文利用 1984-2007 年的国家健康访谈调查数据（n=607959）和美国人口普查数据，估计了过去二十年来美国收入不平等程度的急剧增加对两个健康指标（即身体功能和活动受限）的社会经济地位梯度的影响。结果表明，收入不平等的加剧增强了家庭收入、就业、大学教育和婚姻对这两个健康指标的保护作用。相比之下，在收入不平等加剧的情况下，高中教育的保护作用（相对于高中以下教育）减弱了。此外，我们发现收入不平等的加剧加剧了男性在身体功能和活动受限方面的劣势。这些发现为过去几十年美国不断扩大的健康差距研究提供了新的视角。
