Abstract
BackgroundIn recent years, socioeconomic differences in health statuses and behaviors have not been investigated from the nationally representative survey data in Japan. In this study, we showed differences in representative health behaviors and statuses depending on educational level using a nationally representative survey data in Japan.MethodsAggregated (not individual level) data from the Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions in 2019 were used to examine the association between educational level and outcome status of psychological distress (K6 scores > = 5), self-rated health, smoking, alcohol drinking, and cancer screening participation (stomach, lung, colorectal, breast, and uterine cancers). Data of 217,179 households in Japan were aggregated by the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare in the survey, and the data of the estimated number of household members and persons corresponding to each response option for the questions in all of Japan were used. Five-year age groups from 20 to 24 to 80–84 years and over 84 years were analyzed, and the prevalence or participation rate by educational level were calculated. In addition, the age-standardized prevalence or participation rate according to educational level were also calculated by sex. Moreover, a Poisson regression model was applied for evaluating an association of educational level with the outcomes.ResultsAs a result, a clear gradient by educational level was observed in almost all the age groups for the prevalence of psychological distress, poor self-rated health, and smoking and participation rates in cancer screening, and high educational level were associated with better health-related behaviors and statuses. Conversely, drinking prevalence was shown to be higher rather in highly educated people. In addition, a statistically significant association of educational level with all the outcomes was observed.ConclusionIt was shown that disparities in health behaviors and statuses still persisted in recent years, and the findings suggested that further measures should be taken to tackle this disparity.
Highlights
In recent years, socioeconomic differences in health statuses and behaviors have not been investigated from the nationally representative survey data in Japan
It is known that the relationship between socioeconomic status and health behaviors or cause-specific mortality varied over the years in Japan [7, 16], and a possibility exists that the relationship between each type of health behavior or status changed over the years
Participation rate in the three cancer screenings increased with an increase in educational level in all the age groups
Summary
Socioeconomic differences in health statuses and behaviors have not been investigated from the nationally representative survey data in Japan. We showed differences in representative health behaviors and statuses depending on educational level using a nationally representative survey data in Japan. In previous studies [16,17,18,19,20,21], health inequalities by educational level in Japan have been shown using different data, research methods, and survey years. By showing the differences in various kinds of health indicators by educational level using the most recent national data of Japan, the reality of health inequalities in the current time in Japan could be understood, and the most recent data on health-related outcomes in Japan could be revealed
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