title: Can financial insecurity and condescending treatment explain the higher prevalence of poor self-rated health in women than in men? A population-based cross-sectional study in Sweden.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Women have in general poorer self-rated health than men. Both material and psychosocial conditions have been found to be associated with self-rated health. We investigated whether two such factors, financial insecurity and condescending treatment, could explain the difference in self-rated health between women and men.
  
  
  METHODS
  The association between the two factors and self-rated health was investigated in a population-based sample of 35,018 respondents. The data were obtained using a postal survey questionnaire sent to a random sample of men and women aged 18-75 years in 2008. The area covers 55 municipalities in central Sweden and the overall response rate was 59%. Multinomial odds ratios for poor self-rated health were calculated adjusting for age, educational level and longstanding illness and in the final model also for financial insecurity and condescending treatment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of poor self-rated health was 7.4% among women and 6.0% among men. Women reported more often financial insecurity and condescending treatment than men did. The odds ratio for poor self-rated health in relation to good self-rated health was 1.29 (95% CI: 1.17-1.42) for women compared to men when adjusted for age, educational level and longstanding illness. The association became, however, statistically non-significant when adjusted for financial insecurity and condescending treatment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present findings suggest that women would have as good self-rated health as men if they had similar financial security as men and were not treated in a condescending manner to a larger extent than men. Longitudinal studies are, however, required to confirm this conclusion.
authors.affiliation: Västmanland County Council, Competence Centre for Health, 721 89 Västerås and Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden. anu.molarius@ltv.se
authors.forename: Anu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Molarius
authors.forename: Fredrik
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Granström
authors.forename: Inna
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Feldman
authors.forename: Marina Kalander
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Blomqvist
authors.forename: Helena
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pettersson
authors.forename: Sirkka
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Elo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005382:Financing, Personal / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D057566:Self Report; D012737:Sex Factors; D063507:Sexism / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult