Am J Epidemiol 2004; 159:184-191.
Copyright © 2004 by the Johns
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS |
Contrasting Socioeconomic Profiles Related to Healthier Lifestyles in China and the United States
1 Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.
2 Department of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.
Health disparity by socioeconomic status has recently become an important public health concern. Socioeconomic status may affect health status through several pathways including lifestyle choices. The authors tested the link between socioeconomic status and lifestyle in China (in 1993) and in the United States (in 1994–1996), countries with high contrasts in development, to understand health discrepancy issues cross-nationally. Healthfulness of lifestyle was measured using the Lifestyle Index, a summary score that integrates four key lifestyle factors: diet, physical activity, smoking, and alcohol consumption. Income and education were used as indicators of socioeconomic status. In China, as socioeconomic status improved, lifestyle was less healthy (relative odds for the highest socioeconomic status group = 0.19, 95% confidence interval: 0.10, 0.35). Conversely, in the United States, higher socioeconomic status was related to a healthier lifestyle (relative odds for the highest socioeconomic status group = 3.81, 95% confidence interval: 2.94, 4.94). The contrasting relation between socioeconomic status and lifestyle depicts different phases of the lifestyle transition (changes in lifestyles accompanying economic development). The differences may in part explain why nutrition-related noncommunicable diseases are more prevalent in the developing world among people with a high socioeconomic status, whereas often the opposite is found in developed societies. Public health programs may benefit by advising each socioeconomic status group separately, while considering the country’s level of development.
China; education; health; income; life style; socioeconomic factors; United States
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