Until death do us part. The influence of own and partner's socioeconomic status on the health of spanish middle-aged population

Abstract

Objectives: To explore whether the influence of a partner’s socioeconomic status (SES) on health has an additive or a combined effect with the ego’s SES.

Methods: With data on 4533 middle-aged (30–59) different-sex couples from the 2012 Spanish sample of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey, we apply separate sex-specific logistic regression models to calculate predicted probabilities of having less than good self-perceived health according to individual and partner’s characteristics separately and combined.

Results: Both approaches led to similar results: Having a partner with better SES reduces the probabilities of not having good health. However, the combined approach is more precise in disentangling SES effects. For instance, having a higher educated partner only benefits health among Spanish low-educated men, while men’s health is worse if they have a working spouse. Conversely, women’s health is positively influenced if at least one couple member is economically active.

Conclusions: There are significant health differences between individuals according to their own and their partner’s SES in an apparently advantageous population group (i.e., individuals living with a partner). The combinative approach permits obtaining more precise couple-specific SES profiles.