Socioeconomic Inequalities in Adolescent Health

Abstract

Among adults, there is solid evidence of socioeconomic inequalities in health, with regard to both objective measures (such as mortality and morbidity) and subjective measures (such as self-rated health, health complaints, well-being, and health behaviors). Socioeconomic inequalities denote a range of differences in socioeconomic status (SES) linked with a person’s work experience and economic and social position in relation to others, based on income, education, wealth, and occupation. During adolescence, socioeconomic inequalities in health may be less profound, partly because adolescents (in the Western world) generally are in good health. Moreover, adolescents are in a transit position between the SES of their family of origin and the SES they obtain as adults, and upward or downward social mobility may mask inequalities in this specific period. Nevertheless, adolescence is regarded as a pivotal life phase in the development of health inequalities. Such inequalities probably reflect a way of life that is caused both by life choices and by life opportunities. Life opportunities refer to social position and access to resources in the environment, which may differ widely among adolescents and thus limit or enable their potential for healthy development. Adolescence is a crucial period for making important life choices in terms of education and occupation, as well as choices of lifestyle (including health habits such as food consumption, physical activity, or drug use). The combination of vulnerable life circumstances and unwise life choices is likely to yield negative consequences for adolescent health, and, during the life course, these accumulate to produce poorer adult health, compared to a combination of growing up in a prosperous environment and making choices that are conducive to good health. Globalization and economic and political development lead to changes in “modern” values, including an increasing emphasis on quality of life, self-expression, and freedom of choice. While such development may infer increased opportunities for adolescents to achieve good health and well-being, it can also marginalize those who do not have the capability to “make it” on their own, rendering significant segments of the populations at risk and creating a new type of health inequality.