Affiliations: Karolinska Institutet, Department of Public Health
Sciences, Division of Social Medicine, Stockholm, Sweden | National Centre for Work and Rehabilitation,
Department for Health and Society, Linköping University, Linköping,
Sweden
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Marjan Vaez, Karolinska Institutet,
Department of Public Health Sciences, Division of Social Medicine, Norrbacka,
plan II, SE-171 76 Stockholm, Sweden. Tel.: +46 8 517 793 57; Fax: +46 8 33 46
93; E-mail: marjan.vaez@phs.ki.se
Abstract: The study examines differences in self-rated health and perceived
quality of life (QoL) among young working people according to occupation and
education level. Subjects were extracted from a cross-sectional data set,
covering questionnaire responses of people aged 20–74 years from the
Swedish region of Östergötland, and addressing individual
environmental and health conditions. The emphasis was on males and females in
paid employment aged 20–34 (n = 863). Differences in self-rated health
items and in perceived QoL were subjected to a series of t-tests. Two measures
of individual socioeconomic position were considered – occupation and
education. No education-based differences were found, and there were few
differences based on occupation. Among males, manual workers reported
significantly higher scores with regard to pain and physical function than did
non-manual workers. Male and female manual workers scored significantly lower
on current perceived QoL than non-manual workers. In the case of females, the
differences between manual and non-manual workers also applied to former
perceived QoL. Yet, after applying the Bonferroni correction, none of the
differences observed remained significant. In line with some earlier studies,
it appears that – among young working adults – the manners in which
health status and QoL are perceived are not strongly conditional on
socioeconomic position.
Keywords: health inequalities, health status, education, gender differences, ill-health
