Self-rated health (SRH) and socioeconomic position (SEP) among urban home-dwelling older adults

The main purpose of this study was to examine the association of education and adequacy of income with self-rated health (SRH) among home-dwelling older people aged 75 and over living in the urban area. A cross-sectional survey from 2008 was used to study 1395 older adults aged 75 and over living in one of the central areas of the city center of Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Associations of SRH with, education and adequacy of income were tested using ordinal regression model. Those with a lower level of education had higher level of poor health. Self-assessed adequacy of income had also a strong association with SRH. For the oldest respondents this association was even stronger than the association between education and SRH. Subjective evaluation of financial situation should be used as a key indicator of socioeconomic position (SEP) in studies examining inequalities in health especially among older adults.