SOCIOECONOMIC-STATUS AND THE HEALTH OF THE POPULATION

To examine the relationship of a population's socioeconomic characteri stics to its health status and use of health care services, a composit e socioeconomic risk index was developed for the Population Health Inf ormation System. From a set of 23 socioeconomic indicators derived fro m public use census data, a summary index was formed from six indicato rs to generate profiles for the eight health regions of the province. Regional scores were plotted against an index of health status measure s and against measures of health care utilization. This article focuse s on methodology and discusses preliminary analyses. Strong regional v ariations were found in all of these measures, and the socioeconomic r isk index explained 87% to 92% of the differences in health status and acute hospitalizations. Moreover, regions with the worst health statu s on our indicators were found to be among the highest consumers of he alth services. The socioeconomic risk index appears to be a powerful t ool in clarifying which benefits in improved health status might accru e from changing the underlying inequities in amenable socioeconomic ri sk factors, rather than simply increasing services to regions of low h ealth status.