Self-Rated Health, Subjective Social Status, and Middle-Aged Mortality in a Changing Society

Abstract

In this study, the authors examined the relationships between self-rated health and subjective and objective socioeconomic status (as measured by income and education) in relation to middle-aged mortality differences in men and women across 20 counties in Hungary through a cross-sectional, ecological study. The authors interviewed 12,643 people in a Hungarostudy 2002 survey, profiling the Hungarian population according to gender, age, and county. They found that mean self-rated health and self-rated disability at the county level were significantly associated with middle-aged mortality differences among counties, with male mortality more closely associated with self-rated health. The authors also noted that self-rated health and socioeconomic status of the opposite gender were significantly associated with middle-aged mortality, but the strength of the association differed by gender. Finally, male middle-aged mortality was more strongly connected to female subjective and objective social status than female mortality was connected with male social status.