Trends in subjective health assesment between 1981 and 2011 as an indicator of persistent social inequalities

Abstract

Background: Historically speaking, public health systems were established to guarantee every citizen equal access to health care and to separate the issue of an individual's health from issues of material welbeing. Using social science methodology, the study set out to explore how successful the welfare system in Slovenia was in achieving this goal during the last three decades, i.e. to what extent social inequalities in Slovenia are being reproduced as health inequalities. Methods: The study is based on six waves of Slovenian Public Opinion surveys carried out between 1981 and 2011 on representative samples of the adult Slovenian population. The main dependent variable is the respondent's selfassessed health and the main independent variable is his or her socio-economic status. The relationship between them was examined using Chi-square tests and regression analysis. Results: The thirty year trend shows persisting inequalities in health as throughout the entire period, self-assessed health is significantly lower at the bottom of the educational and income scale. The largest differences between social strata are observed in the 30 to 60 age group when labour market pressures are most pronounced. Conclusions:The results indicate that inequalities in health are almost impossible to eliminate as long as their deeper causes lie in social inequality. An additional factor that decreases self-assessed health in Slovenia compared to Western Europe is the low level of trust in people and social institutions, which is the likely reason why the relatively favourable statistical picture of social inequalities is not translated into an equally favourable picture of subjective health.

Mental health inequalities in Slovenian 15-year-old adolescents explained by personal social position and family socioeconomic status

“…A possible indicator of more implicit differences might be the inequalities apparent in self-assessed health. In fact, we have been observing for the past 30 years that one’s educational level is an important determinant for the self-assessed health of the Slovenian adult population [ 12 ]. In Slovenia, education is also strongly connected to depression in adults of both genders [ 13 , 14 ], even more strongly than in the other 22 countries included in the European Social Survey [ 14 ].…”

The Role of Open Space in Urban Neighbourhoods for Health-Related Lifestyle

“…[ 12 ]. The actions for improving the self-evaluation of health and thus to reduce social inequality are needed [ 38 , 39 ].…”

The role of cultural capital in producing good health: a propensity score study / Vpliv kulturnega kapitala na zdravje: študija nagnjenja

“…Furthermore, our analyses showed a small difference in self-assessed health between the medium and high levels of institutionalised CC. One possible interpretation is that differences in life opportunities between Slovenians with a medium and a high formal education are rather small since all medium-and high-educated persons mainly belonged to the middle class, which has been characterized by small differences in socioeconomic positions and aspirations, automatic access to good public schooling, easily accessible public health care and other social services (23). These were all remnants of the socialistic welfare state's social policies, which Slovenia built on after it became an independent state.…”