The Comparison of General Health and Life Expectancy between Students with Favorable and Unfavorable Socioeconomic Status

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Psychology, Tehran, PNU, Iran

Abstract

Introduction: The present study aims to compare general health and life expectancy between students with favorable and unfavorable socioeconomic status.

Methods: The statistical population in this study consists of all the students of Lamerd city in the second semester of the academic year of 2013-2014. The sample of this study consists of 200 male and female students. A hundred of them are in the favorable socioeconomic status and the other 100 are in the unfavorable socioeconomic status which were selected by multistage random sampling.

Results: The results of the analysis of MANOVA on the mean of life expectancyand general health scores indicated that there is a significant difference between the two groups regarding the investigated variables.

Conclusion: In general, given the vulnerability of people who are in low socioeconomic status compared to the other segments of the society, more attention should be paid to this issue by the authorities.

Keywords


  1. Garmaroudi G, Moradi A. Socio-economic status in Iran: a study of measurement index. Payesh. 2010;9(2):137-44. Persian
  2. WHO. Closing the gap in a generation: Health equity through action on the socialdeterminants of health. Geneva:  WHO, 2008.
  3. Loud C, Stansfeld S, Silva MD. Social Determinants of Mental Health. In Patel W, Minas H, Cohen A, Prince MJ. (Eds.), Global: Mental Health: Principle and Practice. Oxford University Press. 2014:116-36.
  4. Dohrenwend BP, Levav I, Shrout PE, et al. Socioeconomic status and psychiatric disorders: thecausation-selection issue. Science. 1992;255(5047):946-52.
  5. Kessler RC, Chiu WT, Demler O, Walters EE.Prevalence, severity, and comorbidity of 12-month DSM-IVdisorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication.Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005;62(6):617-27.
  6. WHO International Consortium in Psychiatric Epidemiology. Cross-nationalcomparisons of the prevalence’s andcorrelates of mental disorders. Bull WHO. 2000;78(4):413–26.
  7. Lorant V, Deliege D, Eaton W, Robert A, Philippot P, Ansseau M.Socio-economic inequalitiesin depression: a meta-analysis. Am J Epidemiol. 2003;157:98-112.
  8. Bakhshi Soureshjani L. Relationship between perfectionism and depression and academic performance and the relationship between two recent variables with socio-economic status of students of Islamic Azad Universit, Behbehan Branch. Educ J Islamic Azad Univ Bojnourd Branch. 2010;19:37-60.
  9. Sadock B, Sadock V. Summary of Psychiatry (Volume II): Behavioral Sciences-Clinical Psychiatry, translated by Rafie, Hassan and Sobhanian, Khosrou, Tehran, Arjmand Publications, 2008: 118. Persian
  10. Chioqueta AP, Stiles TC. Personality traits and thedevelopment of depression, hopelessness, and suicideideation. Pers Individ Dif. 2005;38:1283-91.
  11. Akbarian M, Rafie H, Sajjadi H, Karimlou M. Socio-economic status, religious behaviors, and life expectancy, predictor of drug use among the unemployed health. J Ardabil Univ Med Sci. 2010;1(1):47-56. Persian
  12. Hallajian Z. Relationship between life expectancy, happiness and quality of life in patients with thalassemia compared to the general population at the city of Ramsar in 2007. BA Thesis. PNU Ramsar Center, 2009. Persian
  13. Taghavi, M. Validity and reliability of mental health questionnaire. J Psychol. 2002;5:381-97.
  14. Johnson JG, Cohen P, Dohrenwend BP, Link BG, Brook JSA. longitudinal investigation of socialcausation and social selection processes involvedin the association between socioeconomic status and psychiatricdisorders. J Abnorm Psy. 1999;108(3):490-99.
  15. Miech RA, Caspi A, Moffitt TE, Wright BRE, Silva PA. Low socioeconomic status and mentaldisorders: A longitudinal study of selection and causationduring young adulthood. Am J Sociol. 1999;104(4):1096-131.
  16. WHO. The World Health report—mental health: New understanding, new hope. WHO, 2001.
  17. Patel V, Kleinman A. Poverty and common mentaldisorders in developing countries. Bull WHO. 2003;81(8):609-15.