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Socioeconomic status and child health: what is the role of health care, health conditions, injuries and maternal health?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2012

Sara Allin  and
Mark Stabile
Sara Allin*
Affiliation:
School of Public Policy & Governance, University of Toronto, Canada
Mark Stabile
Affiliation:
School of Public Policy & Governance, University of Toronto, Canada
*
Correspondence to: Sara Allin, School of Public Policy & Governance, University of Toronto, Canadiana Building, 3rd floor, 14 Queen's Park Crescent West, Toronto, ON M5S 3K9, Canada. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

There is a persistent relationship between socioeconomic status and health that appears to have its roots in childhood. Not only do children in families with lower income and with mothers with lower levels of education have worse health on average than those with greater socioeconomic advantage, but also the gradient appears to steepen with age. This study contributes to the literature on the relationship between socioeconomic status and child health by testing the hypothesis that the increasing effect of family income on children's health with age relates to the children's use of health care services. It also investigates the role of specific health conditions, injuries or maternal health in explaining the steepening gradient. Drawing on a nationally representative survey from Canada, the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth from the period 1994/95–2008/09, this study provides further evidence of a steepening socioeconomic gradient in child health with age. It finds that accounting for health care use does not explain the steepening gradient and that the protective effect of income appears to be greater for those who had contact with the health system, in particular with regard to physician care and prescription drug use.

Type
Articles
Information
Health Economics, Policy and Law , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , 02 March 2012 , pp. 227 - 242
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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