title: Educational inequalities in self-rated health: whether post-socialist Estonia and Russia are performing better than 'Scandinavian' Finland.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of the study is to analyse relationship between self-rated health (SRH) and education in post-socialist countries (Estonia and Russia) and in Finland, a Scandinavian country.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data from the 5th wave of the European Social Survey (ESS) carried out in 2010 were used. In particular, we used a sub-sample of the 25-69 years old. Two-step analysis was carried out: descriptive overview of relationship between SRH and education to assess the knowledge-related impact of education on SRH in pooled model for all three countries; and logistic regression analysis to evaluate separate models in each country.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of at-least-good health was the highest in Finland, Estonia occupied the second position and Russia the third. Knowledge-related educational inequalities were lower in Russia compared to Finland, while they were of similar magnitude in Estonia and Finland.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our expectations that knowledge-based inequalities are lower in post-socialist countries compared to a Scandinavian country turn to be true in case of Russia, not Estonia. Possible reasons for the expectations might be a lack of attention paid to educational inequalities in terms of access to social resources, competitiveness in the labour market and to what extent education provide a tool against uncertainty (preventing work- and unemployment-related stress). Series of comparative studies revealing links between certain institutional packages and (socio-economic and knowledge-related) educational inequalities seem to be of special relevance.
authors.forename: Rein
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vöörmann
authors.forename: Jelena
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Helemäe
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004522:Educational Status; D004957:Estonia; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011057:Politics; D012426:Russia; D057566:Self Report