Indicators for identifying and assessing the impact of socio-economic inequalities on the lifestyles and health of Spanish adolescents

Abstract

In this research we compare different socioeconomic indicators according to their capacity to detect socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent health and lifestyles. The results showed that the relationship between the different socioeconomic indicators, despite being significant, had a weak association, suggesting that each indicator evaluates different dimensions of the socioeconomic construct. In addition, whereas parental education, and especially maternal education, was the most relevant indicator for predicting socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent lifestyles, the perceived family wealth was the most important predictor of inequalities in adolescent health. Additionally, the results of this study show that not all behaviours related to healthy lifestyles and adolescent health were equally influenced by socioeconomic determinants. Along these lines, whereas eating behaviours or health outcomes showed to be highly influenced by socioeconomic factors, the impact of socioeconomic inequalities in behaviours such as alcohol consumption or tobacco use was less clear. This research highlights the importance of choosing a specific indicator in studies that evaluate the effects of socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent health and lifestyles.