Manor O, Matthews S, Power C
School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Hebrew University and Hadassah, Jerusalem, Israel.
Soc Sci Med. 1997 Sep;45(5):761-71. doi: 10.1016/s0277-9536(96)00412-1.
Several methods are available to measure social inequalities in health. This paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches, in particular the odds ratio, the slope and alpha. These methods are illustrated using data from subjects in the 1958 British birth cohort. The inequality measures are compared using health status at ages 23 and 33. Six health indicators are examined, including self-rated health, limiting long-standing illness, psychological health, respiratory symptoms, asthma and obesity. Two social indicators are compared, namely class at birth and educational qualifications. Conclusions do not differ substantially using the three methods for measuring inequality. However, consistent differences were evident between the measures of social position, with greater inequalities apparent for educational qualifications. Choice of social indicator therefore appears to be of primary importance in measuring health inequality.
有多种方法可用于衡量健康方面的社会不平等。本文讨论了不同方法的优缺点，特别是优势比、斜率和阿尔法。使用1958年英国出生队列研究中受试者的数据对这些方法进行了说明。使用23岁和33岁时的健康状况对不平等衡量指标进行了比较。研究了六项健康指标，包括自评健康、长期限制疾病、心理健康、呼吸道症状、哮喘和肥胖。比较了两项社会指标，即出生时的社会阶层和教育程度。使用三种不平等衡量方法得出的结论没有实质性差异。然而，社会地位衡量指标之间存在明显的一致差异，教育程度方面的不平等更为明显。因此，在衡量健康不平等时，社会指标的选择似乎至关重要。
