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- Title
Economic Opportunity, Health Behaviors, and Mortality in the United States.
- Authors
Venkataramani, Atheendar S.; Chatterjee, Paula; Ichiro Kawachi; Tsai, Alexander C.
- Abstract
Objectives. We assessed whether economic opportunity was independently associated with health behaviors and outcomes in the United States. Methods. Using newly available, cross-sectional, county-level data from the Equality of Opportunity Project Database and vital statistics, we estimated associations between all-cause mortality rates (averaged over 2000-2012) and economic opportunity, adjusting for socioeconomic, demographic, and health system covariates. Our measure of economic opportunity was the county-average rank in the national income distribution attained by individuals born to families in the bottom income quartile. Secondary outcomes included rates of age- and race-specific mortality, smoking, obesity, hypertension, and diabetes. Results. An increase in economic opportunity from the lowest to the highest quintile was associated with a 16.7% decrease in mortality. The magnitudes of association were largest for working-age adults and African Americans. Greater economic opportunity was also associated with health behaviors and risk factors. Conclusions. Economic opportunity is a robust, independent predictor of health. Future work should investigate underlying causal links and mechanisms.
- Subjects
UNITED States; ECONOMIC opportunities; HEALTH behavior research; MORTALITY; DEATH rate; DEMOGRAPHIC research; ECONOMICS; CONFIDENCE intervals; HEALTH behavior; RACE; SOCIAL classes; RESEARCH funding; SOCIAL mobility; HEALTH equity; CROSS-sectional method; DATA analysis software; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; ODDS ratio
- Publication
American Journal of Public Health, 2016, Vol 106, Issue 3, p478
- ISSN
0090-0036
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2105/AJPH.2015.302941