Socioeconomic Status and Health are Linked. But What Does that Really Mean? [centerforhealthjournalism.org]

By Alex Leeds Matthews, Center for Health Journalism, August 13, 2019

When reporters talk about socioeconomic status, it’s rarely defined. Usually, we’re thinking of a broad category of measures related to this nebulous idea: income, education, percent of federal poverty level, housing status and others.

But all these little pieces that we stitch together into the broader notion of socioeconomic status are not equivalent. For example, while there is a relationship between income and education, most journalists can attest to the fact that that relationship is not perfectly linear. When we throw in additional variables, like race or gender, the relationship becomes even hazier.

Reporters consider clarity and evidence our bread and butter, so failing to address what we really mean when we talk about socioeconomic status and its relationship to health is problematic.

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