Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Jan 15;173(2):192-200.
doi: 10.1093/aje/kwq348. Epub 2010 Nov 8.

Long-term effects of wealth on mortality and self-rated health status

Anjum Hajat  1 , Jay S Kaufman, Kathryn M Rose, Arjumand Siddiqi, James C Thomas
Affiliations

Long-term effects of wealth on mortality and self-rated health status

Anjum Hajat et al. Am J Epidemiol. .

Abstract

Epidemiologic studies seldom include wealth as a component of socioeconomic status. The authors investigated the associations between wealth and 2 broad outcome measures: mortality and self-rated general health status. Data from the longitudinal Panel Study of Income Dynamics, collected in a US population between 1984 and 2005, were used to fit marginal structural models and to estimate relative and absolute measures of effect. Wealth was specified as a 6-category variable: those with ≤0 wealth and quintiles of positive wealth. There were a 16%-44% higher risk and 6-18 excess cases of poor/fair health (per 1,000 persons) among the less wealthy relative to the wealthiest quintile. Less wealthy men, women, and whites had higher risk of poor/fair health relative to their wealthy counterparts. The overall wealth-mortality association revealed a 62% increased risk and 4 excess deaths (per 1,000 persons) among the least wealthy. Less wealthy women had between a 24% and a 90% higher risk of death, and the least wealthy men had 6 excess deaths compared with the wealthiest quintile. Overall, there was a strong inverse association between wealth and poor health status and between wealth and mortality.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Risk differences and 95% confidence intervals per 1,000 persons for poor/fair self-rated health and mortality by wealth quintile for the total population, Panel Study on Income Dynamics, United States, 1984–2005. Both models were adjusted for baseline covariates and time-varying income and marital status. The mortality model was also adjusted for time-varying self-rated health (SRH).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Keister LA. Wealth in America: Trends in Wealth Inequality. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press; 2000.
    1. Mare RD. Socioeconomic careers and differential mortality among older men in the United States. In: Vallin J, D'Souza S, Palloni A, editors. Measurement and Analysis of Mortality: New Approaches. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 1990. pp. 362–387.
    1. Menchik PL. Economic status as a determinant of mortality among black and white older men: does poverty kill? Popul Stud. 1993;47(3):427–436.
    1. Bond Huie SA, Krueger PM, Rogers RG, et al. Wealth, race, and mortality. Soc Sci Q. 2003;84(3):667–684.
    1. Attanasio OP, Hoynes HW. Differential mortality and wealth accumulation. J Hum Resour. 2000;35(1):1–29.

Publication types