Berkman L F, Macintyre S
Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
IARC Sci Publ. 1997(138):51-64.
The measurement of socioeconomic status (SES) is a serious matter that requires us to think more precisely about both conceptual issues and issues more traditionally thought of as measurement issues. Progress in this area rests on our ability to identify those aspects of SES that are most closely related to health, human development, and life expectancy. In this chapter we review measures of SES based on characteristics of the individual as well as on characteristics of the environment or more ecologically based measures. Each of these types of SES measures has strengths and weaknesses and in all likelihood taps somewhat different aspects of class. In measuring SES across diverse populations, it is also crucial to be sensitive to the ways in which measurement varies across different cultural, ethnic and demographic groups. It is likely that as we conduct more refined research in this area we will understand more fully why SES is so profoundly related to health status. However, so as to understand this relationship, we will need to expand efforts to identify not only those psychosocial or biological processes that occur 'downstream' as a result of SES but also the nature of the social experience itself and those 'upstream' forces that place so many individuals at risk.
社会经济地位（SES）的衡量是一件严肃的事情，它要求我们更精确地思考概念问题以及那些传统上被视为测量问题的问题。该领域的进展取决于我们识别出SES中与健康、人类发展和预期寿命最密切相关的那些方面的能力。在本章中，我们将回顾基于个体特征以及环境特征或更基于生态的测量方法来衡量SES的情况。这些类型的SES测量方法各有优缺点，并且很可能涉及到阶层的不同方面。在对不同人群进行SES测量时，对测量方法在不同文化、种族和人口群体中的差异保持敏感也至关重要。随着我们在这一领域开展更精细的研究，我们很可能会更全面地理解为什么SES与健康状况有着如此深刻的关联。然而，为了理解这种关系，我们不仅需要加大力度识别那些由于SES而在“下游”发生的心理社会或生物过程，还需要识别社会经历本身的性质以及那些使众多个体面临风险的“上游”力量。
