CONTRIBUTION OF PSYCHOSOCIAL FACTORS TO SOCIOECONOMIC DIFFERENCES IN HEALTH

The National Survey of Mid-life Developments in the United States (MID US) is one of several studies that demonstrate socioeconomic gradients in mortality during midlife. When MIDUS findings on self-reported hea lth, waist to hip ratio, and psychological wellbeing were analyzed for their possible roles in generating socioeconomic differences in healt h, they revealed clear educational gradients for women and men (i.e., higher education predicted better health). Certain potential mediating variables, like household income, parents' education, smoking behavio r, and social relations, contributed to an explanation of the socioeco nomic gradient. In addition, two census-based measures, combined into an area poverty index, independently predicted ill health. The results suggest that a set of both early and current life circumstances cumul atively contribute toward explaining why people of lower soeioeconomic status have worse health and lower psychological well-being.