Assessing alternative measures of wealth in health research.
OBJECTIVE
We assessed whether it would be feasible to replace the standard measure of net worth with simpler measures of wealth in population-based studies examining associations between wealth and health.


METHODS
We used data from the 2004 Survey of Consumer Finances (respondents aged 25-64 years) and the 2004 Health and Retirement Survey (respondents aged 50 years or older) to construct logistic regression models relating wealth to health status and smoking. For our wealth measure, we used the standard measure of net worth as well as 9 simpler measures of wealth, and we compared results among the 10 models.


RESULTS
In both data sets and for both health indicators, models using simpler wealth measures generated conclusions about the association between wealth and health that were similar to the conclusions generated by models using net worth. The magnitude and significance of the odds ratios were similar for the covariates in multivariate models, and the model-fit statistics for models using these simpler measures were similar to those for models using net worth.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest that simpler measures of wealth may be acceptable in population-based studies of health.
School of Social Work, Population Research Center, University of Texas, Austin, 78712-0358, USA. ccubbin@austin.utexas.edu
Catherine
C
Cubbin
Craig
C
Pollack
Brian
B
Flaherty
Mark
M
Hayward
Ayesha
A
Sania
Donna
D
Vallone
Paula
P
Braveman
D000328:Adult; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D015995:Prevalence; D012107:Research Design; D012907:Smoking / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
Stroke. 2008 May;39(5):1533-40
18436891
Matern Child Health J. 2009 Nov;13(6):720-31
19557507
J Health Soc Behav. 1997 Mar;38(1):21-37
9097506
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2009 May;64(3):378-89
19307286
Stat Med. 2008 Sep 10;27(20):3927-40
18680166
Public Health Rep. 2007 Nov-Dec;122(6):753-63
18051668
Am J Public Health. 2009 Oct;99(10):1849-55
19150899
JAMA. 2005 Dec 14;294(22):2879-88
16352796
Public Health Rep. 2001 Sep-Oct;116(5):449-63
12042609
J Am Geriatr Soc. 2009 Jun;57(6):955-62
19473456
Am J Prev Med. 2009 Sep;37(3):207-13
19595554
Am J Prev Med. 2007 Sep;33(3):250-64
17826585
Health Econ. 2005 Dec;14(12):1197-215
15945040