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Gender inequality in health among elderly people in a combined framework of socioeconomic position, family characteristics and social support

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2009

SILVIA RUEDA  and
LUCÍA ARTAZCOZ
SILVIA RUEDA*
Affiliation:
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain.
LUCÍA ARTAZCOZ
Affiliation:
Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona, and CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Spain.
*
Address for correspondence: Silvia Rueda Pozo, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, C/ Ramón Trias Fargas, 25–27 08005 Barcelona, Spain. E-mail: silvia.rueda@upf.edu
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Abstract

This study analyses gender inequalities in health among elderly people in Catalonia (Spain) by adopting a conceptual framework that globally considers three dimensions of health determinants: socio-economic position, family characteristics and social support. Data came from the 2006 Catalonian Health Survey. For the purposes of this study a sub-sample of people aged 65–85 years with no paid job was selected (1,113 men and 1,484 women). The health outcomes analysed were self-perceived health status, poor mental health status and long-standing limiting illness. Multiple logistic regression models separated by sex were fitted and a hierarchical model was fitted in three steps. Health status among elderly women was poorer than among the men for the three outcomes analysed. Whereas living with disabled people was positively related to the three health outcomes and confidant social support was negatively associated with all of them in both sexes, there were gender differences in other social determinants of health. Our results emphasise the importance of using an integrated approach for the analysis of health inequalities among elderly people, simultaneously considering socio-economic position, family characteristics and social support, as well as different health indicators, in order fully to understand the social determinants of the health status of older men and women.

Keywords

genderinequalitieselderlysocio-economic factorsfamily characteristicssocial support
Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , May 2009 , pp. 625 - 647
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 Cambridge University Press

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