The impact of socioeconomic status on changes in the general and mental health of women over time: evidence from a longitudinal study of Australian women

Table 4 Longitudinal estimates (S1-S6)¹of general health and mental health by SES, high/mid/low categories, 1946–51 ALSWH²cohort

	General health³estimate model 3	P-value	Mental health⁴estimate model 4	P-value
Intercept	82.7605	<.0001	78.4172	<.0001
SES Groups
Low	Reference		Reference
Mid	2.1192	<.0001	1.9351	<.0001
High	1.3834	0.0013	1.7907	<.0001
Time (years since Survey 1)	−0.3427	<.0001	0.1128	<.0001
Age	−0.1718	0.0963	0.3719	<.0001
Interaction: SES*Time
Low SES*Time	Reference		Reference
Mid SES*Time	0.0553	0.0635	0.0542	0.0468
High SES*Time	0.2185	<.0001	0.1805	<.0001
Body mass index
Normal	Reference		Reference
Underweight	−3.4047	0.0044	−1.1942	0.2200
Overweight	−3.3426	<.0001	−0.3256	0.2637
Obese	−9.6763	<.0001	−1.5703	<.0001
Marital status
Married/De-facto	Reference		Reference
Divorced/Separated	−0.8448	0.0492	−0.6304	0.0713
Smoking status
Non-smoker	Reference		Reference
Ex-smoker	0.2893	0.4135	−0.6156	.0322
Smoker	−5.1002	<.0001	−2.0835	<.0001
Area of residence
Urban	Reference		Reference
Rural	1.2038	0.0002	1.9726	<.0001
Able to manage on income
Easy	Reference		Reference
Difficult sometimes	−3.0150	<.0001	−2.0835	<.0001
Not too bad	−6.1416	<.0001	−4.9092	<.0001
Impossible/Difficult always	−11.4870	<.0001	−10.3650	<.0001
Stress
Major life experiences	−24.0024	<.0001	−30.0025	<.0001

ISSN: 1475-9276