Self-Rated Health and Wealth: Evidence from the Miami-Dade Health Survey

• In Event: 343 - Section on Medical Sociology Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 09. Social Capital and Subjective Health Assessment

Abstract

Socioeconomic inequality has been established for different racial/ethnic and immigrant groups using traditional measures of socioeconomic status (SES) like education, employment, and income; however, wealth is another important dimension of SES often overlooked in studies on health. SES, race/ethnicity, and immigration have been shown to be important determinants of health status. In this study, we test whether wealth (net worth and homeownership) contributes to health status over and above the traditional dimensions of SES and other putative antecedents of social inequality. Our study focuses on Miami Dade County, Florida, which consists of one of the most diverse racial/ethnic and immigrant populations in the United States. The main outcome measures are self-rated overall health and relative health status. Our results clearly demonstrate that wealth has a significant, independent effect and is important in mediating the influence of fundamental social status inequality on health status.

Authors

• Robert J. Johnson, University of Miami

• Krysia Mossakowski, University of Hawaii-Manoa

• Terrence D. Hill, University of Arizona