Complexity of the Socioeconomic Status and its Disparity as a Determinant of Health

The socioeconomic (SE) status is considered to be one of the most important health risk factors nowadays. A simple search showed that only in 2011, more than 1100 articles were cited in Pubmed about the relationship of health and SE status. However, there are many inquiries about this association. The SE status is a complex and multidimensional issue, and there is no gold standard method to measure it, More importantly, the impact of SE status on different aspects of health is not clear. The SE status is a broad and multidimensional term. The first component of the SE status covers the social class of subjects; which means, it considers if the person has an acceptable social position. Usually, education is measured as a proxy of a social class of people; unfortunately, the other aspects of the social class of people are much more complex to be approached. However, the educational level of people is measured with different scales, from a very simple binary scale (literate / illiterate) up to a numeric scale (year of education). The second component of the SE status speaks about the affluence and proceeds of subjects. Nevertheless, this component also has no clear definition. The income, expenditure, or the possessions of an individual or a household might be measured in this regard. However, informational bias and a high rate of non-responses are the two main concerns. Although these two components of the SE status Research Center for Modeling in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran Correspondence to: Associate Prof. Ali Akbar Haghdoost, Research Center for Modeling in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran. E-mail: [email protected] Date of Submission: Dec 20, 2011