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Changes in Socioeconomic Differences in Hospital Days With Age: Cumulative Disadvantage, Age-as-Leveler, or Both?

Changes in Socioeconomic Differences in Hospital Days With Age: Cumulative Disadvantage,... ObjectivesLength of hospital stay is inversely associated with socioeconomic status (SES). It is less clear whether socioeconomic disparities in numbers of hospital days diverge or converge with age.MethodLongitudinal linked Finnish registry data (1988–2007) from 137,653 men and women aged 50–79 years at the end of 1987 were used. Trajectories of annual total hospital days by education, household income, and occupational class were estimated using negative binomial models.ResultsMen and women with higher education, household income, and occupational class had fewer hospital days in 1988 than those with lower SES. Hospital days increased between 1988 and 2007. For some age groups, higher SES was associated with a faster annual rate of increase, resulting in narrowing rate ratios of hospital days between SES groups (relative differences); the rate ratios remained stable for other groups. Absolute SES differences in numbers of hospital days appeared to diverge with age among those aged 50–69 years at baseline, but converge among those aged 70–79 years at baseline.DiscussionThe hypotheses that socioeconomic disparities in health diverge or converge with age may not be mutually exclusive; we demonstrated convergence/maintenance in relative differences for all age groups, but divergence or convergence in absolute differences depending on age. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences Oxford University Press

Changes in Socioeconomic Differences in Hospital Days With Age: Cumulative Disadvantage, Age-as-Leveler, or Both?

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References (55)

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
ISSN
1079-5014
eISSN
1758-5368
DOI
10.1093/geronb/gbx161
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

ObjectivesLength of hospital stay is inversely associated with socioeconomic status (SES). It is less clear whether socioeconomic disparities in numbers of hospital days diverge or converge with age.MethodLongitudinal linked Finnish registry data (1988–2007) from 137,653 men and women aged 50–79 years at the end of 1987 were used. Trajectories of annual total hospital days by education, household income, and occupational class were estimated using negative binomial models.ResultsMen and women with higher education, household income, and occupational class had fewer hospital days in 1988 than those with lower SES. Hospital days increased between 1988 and 2007. For some age groups, higher SES was associated with a faster annual rate of increase, resulting in narrowing rate ratios of hospital days between SES groups (relative differences); the rate ratios remained stable for other groups. Absolute SES differences in numbers of hospital days appeared to diverge with age among those aged 50–69 years at baseline, but converge among those aged 70–79 years at baseline.DiscussionThe hypotheses that socioeconomic disparities in health diverge or converge with age may not be mutually exclusive; we demonstrated convergence/maintenance in relative differences for all age groups, but divergence or convergence in absolute differences depending on age.

Journal

The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences – Oxford University Press

Published: Jun 2, 2020

Keywords: Socioeconomic disparities; Hospital days; Longitudinal registry-based data

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