Vauclair Christin-Melanie, Marques Sibila, Lima Maria L, Abrams Dominic, Swift Hannah, Bratt Christopher
Centro de Investigação e Intervenção Social (CIS-IUL), Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Portugal.
Department of Psychology, University of Kent, Canterbury.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2015 Nov;70(6):901-12. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbu066. Epub 2014 Jun 4.
The relative income hypothesis predicts poorer health in societies with greater income inequality. This article examines whether the psychosocial factors of perceived age discrimination and (lack of) social capital may help explain the adverse effect of inequality on older people's health.
Self-rated health, perceived age discrimination, and social capital were assessed in the 2008/9 European Social Survey (European Social Survey Round 4 Data, 2008). The Gini coefficient was used to represent national inequalities in income in each of the 28 European Social Survey countries. Mediation analyses (within a multilevel structural equation modeling paradigm) on a subsample of respondents over 70 years of age (N = 7,819) were used to examine whether perceived age discrimination mediates the negative effect of income inequality on older people's self-rated health.
Perceived age discrimination fully mediated the associations between income inequality and self-rated health. When social capital was included into the model, only age discrimination remained a significant mediator and predictor of self-rated health.
Concrete instances of age discrimination in unequal societies are an important psychosocial stressor for older people. Awareness that the perception of ageism can be an important stressor and affect older patient's self-reported health has important implications for the way health practitioners understand and treat the sources of patient's health problems in later life.
相对收入假说预测，在收入不平等程度较高的社会中，人们的健康状况会较差。本文探讨了感知到的年龄歧视和（缺乏）社会资本等社会心理因素是否有助于解释不平等对老年人健康的不利影响。
在2008/9年欧洲社会调查（2008年欧洲社会调查第4轮数据）中评估了自评健康状况、感知到的年龄歧视和社会资本。基尼系数用于代表欧洲社会调查28个国家中每个国家的国民收入不平等情况。对70岁以上受访者的子样本（N = 7819）进行中介分析（在多层次结构方程建模范式内），以检验感知到的年龄歧视是否介导了收入不平等对老年人自评健康的负面影响。
感知到的年龄歧视完全介导了收入不平等与自评健康之间的关联。当将社会资本纳入模型时，只有年龄歧视仍然是自评健康的重要中介因素和预测因素。
不平等社会中年龄歧视的具体事例是老年人重要的社会心理压力源。认识到年龄歧视观念可能是一个重要的压力源并影响老年患者自我报告的健康状况，这对健康从业者理解和治疗老年患者健康问题的根源具有重要意义。
