About the Project
Rationale: Wealth is a complex construct, referring not only to material resources, but also to potential access to different lifestyles, and a sense of security, power and control. A given level of income or education reflects dramatically different levels of wealth for people in different racial/ethnic groups. Thus, controlling for income and/or education in health disparities studies is not the same as controlling for wealth. Failure to measure wealth, then, may under-estimate the contribution of SES/position (SES) to health, such as when studying the etiology of racial/ethnic disparities. However, because measuring wealth is time-consuming and burdensome on respondents, it is rarely included in health surveys. Simpler measures are needed to be more widely applicable in health disparities research.
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify and recommend feasible measures of wealth based on current questions asked in the following two population-based health surveys: The Health and Retirement Survey (HRS), which uses “bracketing” in the survey administration to reduce missing data on wealth; and the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), which is considered to contain the most accurate distribution of wealth data in the U.S. TReND’s investigators will use item response theory to test relationships between a set of individual items (e.g., home ownership, financial accounts) against a continuous wealth latent variable (based on multiple, detailed questions, and measured similarly in the two datasets). This information will be used to select optimal subsets of items to measure wealth. Items will be tested in the overall samples, as well as within social groups (i.e., based on racial/ethnic group, income, education, and gender; HRS and SCF both sample Black, Hispanic, and White women and men, and collect data on income and education). Health indicators will include follow-up mortality and smoking status in the HRS and fair/poor health and smoking status in the SCF.
Impact: Racial/ethnic disparities are often interpreted to reflect biological or cultural differences without adequately considering the role of SES influences, such as wealth. This project will inform the nature of racial/ethnic--and other social--disparities in health, as well as increase our understanding of wealth disparities in smoking. We will also gain knowledge of how wealth measures operate within social groups. The increased use of wealth measures in health/tobacco disparities research may inform the development of more effective policy and programmatic interventions to reduce disparities.
Resources and Publications
Braveman PA, Cubbin C, Egerter S, Chideya S, Marchi KS, Metzler M, Posner S. Socioeconomic status in health research: One size does not fit all. JAMA 2005;294:2879-2888.
Pollack C, Chideya S, Cubbin C, Williams B, Braveman PA. Should health studies measure wealth: A systematic review. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2007;33:250-264.
Research Team
Catherine Cubbin, PhD (Principal Investigator)
University of Texas at Austin
Paula Braveman, MD, MPH
University of California, San Francisco
Brian Flaherty, PhD
University of Washington
Mark Hayward, PhD
University of Texas at Austin
Craig Pollack, MD, MHS
University of Pennsylvania
Contact Us
Principal Investigator:
Catherine Cubbin, PhD
Faculty Research Associate, Population Research Center
Associate Professor, School of Social Work
University of Texas at Austin
ccubbin@prc.utexas.edu
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