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British Medical Bulletin Advance Access published online on February 6, 2007
British Medical Bulletin, doi:10.1093/bmb/ldm001
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Measuring socioeconomic position in health research

Bruna Galobardes{dagger}, John Lynch{ddagger} and George Davey Smith{dagger},*

{dagger} Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, UK
{ddagger} Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, McGill University, Canada

* Correspondence to: Prof. George Davey Smith, Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Canynge Hall, Whiteladies Road, Bristol BS8 2PR, UK. E-mail: George.Davey-Smith{at}bristol.ac.uk

OBJECTIVE: In this article we review different measures of socioeconomic position (SEP) and their uses in health-related research.

AREAS OF AGREEMENT: Socioeconomic circumstances influence health.

AREAS OF CONTROVERSY: Generally, poorer socioeconomic circumstances lead to poorer health. This has generated a search for generic mechanisms that could explain such a general association. However, we propose that there is a greater variation in the association between SEP and health than is generally acknowledged when specific health outcomes are investigated. We propose that studying these variations provide a better understanding of the aetiological mechanisms relating specific diseases with specific exposures.

AREAS TO DEVELOP RESEARCH: Using different indicators of SEP in health research can better capture these variations and is important when evaluating the full contribution of confounding by socioeconomic conditions. We propose that using an array of SEP indicators within a life course framework also offers considerable opportunity to explore causal pathways in disease aetiology.

Keywords: socioeconomic position • health inequalities • health research

Accepted for publication January 9, 2007.


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