Dataset Information

Is financial hardship associated with reduced health in disability? The case of spinal cord injury in Switzerland.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To investigate socioeconomic inequalities in a comprehensive set of health indicators among persons with spinal cord injury in a wealthy country, Switzerland.

Methods

Observational cross-sectional data from 1549 participants of the Swiss Spinal Cord Injury Cohort Study (SwiSCI), aged over 16 years, and living in Switzerland were analyzed. Socioeconomic circumstances were operationalized by years of formal education, net equivalent household income and financial hardship. Health indicators including secondary conditions, comorbidities, pain, mental health, participation and quality of life were used as outcomes. Associations between socioeconomic circumstances and health indicators were evaluated using ordinal regressions.

Results

Financial hardship was consistently associated with more secondary conditions (OR 3.37, 95% CI 2.18-5.21), comorbidities (OR 2.88, 95% CI 1.83-4.53) and pain (OR 3.32, 95% CI 2.21-4.99), whereas mental health (OR 0.23, 95% CI 0.15-0.36), participation (OR 0.30, 95% CI 0.21-0.43) and quality of life (OR 0.22, 95% CI 0.15-0.33) were reduced. Persons with higher education reported better mental health (OR 1.04, 95% CI 1.00-1.07) and higher quality of life (OR 1.06, 95% CI 1.02-1.09); other health indicators were not associated with education. Household income was not related to any of the studied health indicators when models were controlled for financial hardship.

Conclusions

Suffering from financial hardship goes along with significant reductions in physical health, functioning and quality of life, even in a wealthy country with comprehensive social and health policies.

SUBMITTER: Fekete C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3938582 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Is financial hardship associated with reduced health in disability? The case of spinal cord injury in Switzerland.

Fekete Christine C Siegrist Johannes J Reinhardt Jan D JD Brinkhof Martin W G MW

PloS one 20140228 2

<h4>Objective</h4>To investigate socioeconomic inequalities in a comprehensive set of health indicators among persons with spinal cord injury in a wealthy country, Switzerland.<h4>Methods</h4>Observational cross-sectional data from 1549 participants of the Swiss Spinal Cord Injury Cohort Study (SwiSCI), aged over 16 years, and living in Switzerland were analyzed. Socioeconomic circumstances were operationalized by years of formal education, net equivalent household income and financial hardship. ...[more]

PMID: 24587239

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Dataset Information

Is financial hardship associated with reduced health in disability? The case of spinal cord injury in Switzerland.

Objective

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Is financial hardship associated with reduced health in disability? The case of spinal cord injury in Switzerland.

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