Area variations in health behaviours.

Many studies of health inequalities use household income as an indicator of socioeconomic status. Because household income is usually subject to high item non-response rates area or census-based measures have been suggested as an alternative. A number of studies have shown that these are as good as or better than conventional measures of socioeconomic status at identifying variations in health status and use of health services. This paper examines the association of the median household income of the enumeration area in which a subject lives, with a variety of oral and general health behaviours. After the confounding effects of age and sex were controlled for, this area-based indicator was significantly associated with six of ten health behaviours for which data were collected. Four of the associations remained significant after the effects of house hold income were controlled for. These results suggest that area-based measures of socioeconomic status may have a useful role in understanding the influence of social contexts on health behaviours.