Economics Unit, School of Technology and Business Studies, Dalarna University, 791 88, Falun, Sweden.
Int J Equity Health. 2020 Nov 4;19(1):196. doi: 10.1186/s12939-020-01304-2.
Several studies have demonstrated that self-rated health status is affected by socioeconomic variables. However, there is little knowledge about whether perceived economic resources affect people's health. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between self-rated health status and different measures of income. Specifically, the effect of both objective income and perceived economic resources are estimated for a very large sample of households in Italy. By estimating this relationship, this paper aims at filling the previously mentioned gap.
The data used are from the 2015 European Health Interview Survey and were collected using information from approximately 16,000 households in 562 Italian municipalities. Ordinary and generalized ordered probit models were used in estimating the effects of a set of covariates, among others measures of income, on the self-rated health status.
The results suggest that the subjective income, measured by the perceived economic resources, affects the probability of reporting a higher self-rate health status more than objective income. The results also indicate that other variables, such as age, educational level, presence/absence of chronic disease, and employment status, affect self-rated health more significantly than objective income. It is also found that males report more frequently higher rating than females.
Our analysis demonstrates that perceived income affects significantly self-rated health. While self-perceived economic resources have been used to assess economic well-being and satisfaction, they can also be used to assess stress levels and related health outcomes. Our findings suggest that low subjective income adversely affects subjective health. Therefore, it is important to distinguish between effects of income and individuals' perceptions of their economic resources or overall financial situation on their health. From a gender perspective, our results show that females are less likely to have high rating than males. However, as females perceive an improved economic situation, on the margin, the likelihood of a higher self-rated health increases compared to males.
多项研究表明，自感健康状况受到社会经济变量的影响。然而，人们对感知到的经济资源是否会影响人们的健康知之甚少。本研究的目的是检验自感健康状况与不同收入衡量指标之间的关系。具体而言，将估计意大利一个非常大的家庭样本中客观收入和感知经济资源的影响。通过估计这种关系，本文旨在填补之前提到的空白。
使用的数据来自 2015 年欧洲健康访谈调查，这些数据是通过大约 16000 个家庭在 562 个意大利城市的信息收集而来。在估计一组协变量的影响时，使用了普通和广义有序概率模型，这些协变量包括收入衡量指标等，对自感健康状况的影响。
结果表明，主观收入（由感知经济资源衡量）比客观收入更能影响报告更高自感健康状况的概率。结果还表明，其他变量，如年龄、教育程度、是否患有慢性疾病和就业状况，比客观收入更显著地影响自感健康。还发现男性比女性更频繁地报告更高的评分。
我们的分析表明，感知收入对自感健康有显著影响。虽然感知经济资源已被用于评估经济福祉和满意度，但它们也可用于评估压力水平和相关健康结果。我们的研究结果表明，主观收入低会对主观健康产生不利影响。因此，区分收入的影响和个人对其经济资源或整体财务状况的看法对健康的影响很重要。从性别角度来看，我们的研究结果表明，女性自感健康状况良好的可能性低于男性。然而，随着女性感知到经济状况的改善，自感健康状况良好的可能性与男性相比会有所增加。
