Many studies of health inequalities use household income as in indicat
or of socioeconomic status. Because household income is usually subjec
t to high item non-response rates, area or census-based measures have
been suggested as an alternative. A number of studies have shown that
these are as good as or better than conventional measures of socioecon
omic status at identifying variations in health status and use of heal
th services. This paper examines the association of the median househo
ld income of the enumeration area in which a subject lives, with a var
iety of oral and general health behaviours. After the confounding effe
cts of age and sex were controlled for, this area-based indicator was
significantly associated with six of ten health behaviours for which d
ata were collected. Four of the associations remained significant afte
r the effects of household income were controlled for. These results s
uggest that area-based measures of socioeconomic status may have a use
ful role in understanding the influence of social contexts on health b
ehaviours.