Does who you live with matter for your health? The influence of partners' socioeconomic characteristics on self-rated health in Norway.

AIMS: Studies of the association between self-rated health and persons' income and education have almost invariably shown that people with higher education and incomes report better health. Less is known of the influence of household members' socioeconomic characteristics on individuals' health. This study thus aimed to assess the extent to which the socioeconomic characteristics of partners may contribute to explaining the variation in the respondents' self-rated health (SRH). METHODS: Using an observational design, we analysed cross-sectional Norwegian survey data on SRH (2015 and 2019), linked to register data on education and income for respondents (N = 7082) and their opposite-sex coresident spouse or partner. We employed logistic regression models to assess the associations between respondents' SRH and the relative income and education of their partner. Average marginal effects were calculated to enable cross-model comparisons. RESULTS: Net of individual characteristics, having a higher-educated partner was positively associated with SRH for both male (OR = 1.56) and female (OR = 1.36) respondents. Having a partner with an above median income (by age and sex) was positively associated with SRH for female (OR = 1.29) respondents only. For education, the positive SRH associations were roughly similar for respondents and partners. For income, the associations were more pronounced for respondents than partners. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that health is affected by the resources (or lack thereof) in one's immediate networks. To reduce social inequalities in health, health personnel might customise interactions to account for household resources. Such knowledge could also be used in health-promoting activities to enhance participation and health competency.

Trends in socioeconomic inequalities in self-assessed health in 10 European countries.

BACKGROUND: Changes over time in inequalities in self-reported health are studied for increasingly more countries, but a comprehensive overview encompassing several countries is still lacking. The general aim of this article is to determine whether inequalities in self-assessed health in 10 European countries showed a general tendency either to increase or to decrease between the 1980s and the 1990s and whether trends varied among countries. METHODS: Data were obtained from nationally representative interview surveys held in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, England, The Netherlands, West Germany, Austria, Italy, and Spain. The proportion of respondents with self-assessed health less than 'good' was measured in relation to educational level and income level. Inequalities were measured by means of age-standardized prevalence rates and odds ratios (ORs). RESULTS: Socioeconomic inequalities in self-assessed health showed a high degree of stability in European countries. For all countries together, the ORs comparing low with high educational levels remained stable for men (2.61 in the 1980s and 2.54 in the 1990s) but increased slightly for women (from 2.48 to 2.70). The ORs comparing extreme income quintiles increased from 3.13 to 3.37 for men and from 2.43 to 2.86 for women. Increases could be demonstrated most clearly for Italian and Spanish men and women, and for Dutch women, whereas inequalities in health in the Nordic countries showed no tendency to increase. CONCLUSIONS: The results underscore the persistent nature of socioeconomic inequalities in health in modern societies. The relatively favourable trends in the Nordic countries suggest that these countries' welfare states were able to buffer many of the adverse effects of economic crises on the health of disadvantaged groups.