WOMENS HEALTH - DIMENSIONS AND DIFFERENTIALS

This paper is concerned with the social patterning of ill-health among st women in Britain. It uses the various health measures available in the Health and Lifestyle Survey (self-assessed health, disease/disabil ity, illness, psyche-social well-being and fitness) to explore whether there are particular aspects of health systematically associated with social advantage and disadvantage, as measured by current or last occ upation, employment status, household composition and household income . Among women aged 18-59, after controlling for age, number of psychol ogical symptoms experienced in the past month showed the greatest soci al variation. Number of physical illness symptoms in the last month sh owed the least. Lone mothers with dependent children were found to hav e particularly poor psyche-social health, although this was confined t o those in full-time employment. The presence of a long-standing disea se/disability proved useful as a control for the influence of health s election in to and out of both employment and motherhood. Copyright (C ) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.