Despite the existing literature on the central role of socioeconomic status (SES; education and income) for maintaining health, less is known about group differences in this effect. Built on the intersectionality approach, this study compared race by gender groups for the effects of baseline education and income on sustained health problems in five domains: depressive symptoms, insomnia, physical inactivity, body mass index (BMI), and self-rated health (SRH).
Data came from waves 7, 8, and 10 of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), which were collected in 2004, 2006, and 2010, respectively. The study followed 37,495 white and black men and women above age 50 for up to 6 years. This number included 12,495 white men, 15,581 white women, 3839 black men, and 5580 black women. Individuals reported their depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D) 11), insomnia, physical inactivity, BMI, and SRH across all waves. Multigroup structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to compare black men, black women, white men, and white women for the effects of education and income in 2004 on sustained health problems from 2004 to 2010.
In the pooled sample, higher education and income at baseline were associated with lower sustained health problems across all five domains. However, race by gender group differences were found in the effects of education and income on sustained insomnia, physical inactivity, and BMI, but not depressive symptoms and SRH. The protective effects of education against insomnia, physical inactivity, and BMI were not found for black men. For black women, the effect of education on BMI was not found. Income had a protective effect against sustained high BMI among white and black women but not white and black men.
The intersection of race and gender alters the protective effects of social determinants on sustained health problems such as insomnia, physical inactivity, and BMI. Social groups particularly vary in the operant mechanisms by which SES contributes to maintaining health over time. The health effects are less universal for education than income. Race by gender groups differ more in SES determinants of BMI, insomnia, and physical inactivity than depressive symptoms and SRH.
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A public use dataset was used, available at the study website at University of Michigan. The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is conducted by the Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan. The National Institute on Aging (NIA) provided funding for the Health and Retirement Study (U01 AG09740).
Source of Support
Shervin Assari is supported by the Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Fund and the Richard Tam Foundation at the University of Michigan Depression Center.
Conflict of Interest
All authors declare that they do not have any conflicts of interest.
The study received IRB approval from University of Michigan. All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000.
Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.
No animal studies were carried out by the authors for this article.
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Assari, S., Nikahd, A., Malekahmadi, M.R. et al. Race by Gender Group Differences in the Protective Effects of Socioeconomic Factors Against Sustained Health Problems Across Five Domains. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities 4, 884–894 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-016-0291-3
- Ethnic groups
- Body mass index