TY  - JOUR
A1  - Fliesser, Michael
A1  - De Witt Huberts, Jessie
A1  - Wippert, Pia-Maria
T1  - The choice that matters: the relative influence of socioeconomic status indicators on chronic back pain- a longitudinal study
T2  - BMC health services research
N2  - Background: In health research, indicators of socioeconomic status (SES) are often used interchangeably and often lack theoretical foundation. This makes it difficult to compare results from different studies and to explore the relationship between SES and health outcomes. To aid researchers in choosing appropriate indicators of SES, this article proposes and tests a theory-based selection of SES indicators using chronic back pain as a health outcome. Results: Chronic back pain intensity was best predicted by the multidimensional index (beta = 0.31, p < 0.05), followed by job position (beta = 0.29, p < 0.05) and education (beta = -0.29, p < 0.05); whereas, income exerted no significant influence. Back pain disability was predicted strongest by education (beta = -0.30, p < 0.05) and job position (beta = 0. 29, p < 0.05). Here, multidimensional index and income had no significant influence. Conclusions: The choice of SES indicators influences predictive power on both back pain dimensions, suggesting SES predictors cannot be used interchangeably. Therefore, researchers should carefully consider prior to each study which SES indicator to use. The introduced framework can be valuable in supporting this decision because it allows for a stable prediction of SES indicator influence and their hierarchy on a specific health outcomes.
KW  - socioeconomic status
KW  - Indicators of socioeconomic status
KW  - health inequality
KW  - education
KW  - job position
KW  - income
KW  - chronic back pain
Y1  - 2017
UR  - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/46916
SN  - 1472-6963
VL  - 17
PB  - BioMed Central
CY  - London
ER  -