Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Apr;35(4):407-11.
doi: 10.1037/hea0000242.

Understanding associations among race, socioeconomic status, and health: Patterns and prospects

David R Williams  1 , Naomi Priest  2 , Norman B Anderson  3
Affiliations

Understanding associations among race, socioeconomic status, and health: Patterns and prospects

David R Williams et al. Health Psychol. 2016 Apr.

Abstract

Race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES) are social categories that capture differential exposure to conditions of life that have health consequences. Race/ethnicity and SES are linked to each other, but race matters for health even after SES is considered. This commentary considers the complex ways in which race combines with SES to affect health. There is a need for greater attention to understanding how risks and resources in the social environment are systematically patterned by race, ethnicity and SES, and how they combine to influence cardiovascular disease and other health outcomes. Future research needs to examine how the levels, timing and accumulation of institutional and interpersonal racism combine with other toxic exposures, over the life-course, to influence the onset and course of illness. There is also an urgent need for research that seeks to build the science base that will identify the multilevel interventions that are likely to enhance the health of all, even while they improve the health of disadvantaged groups more rapidly than the rest of the population so that inequities in health can be reduced and ultimately eliminated. We also need sustained research attention to identifying how to build the political support to reduce the large shortfalls in health. (PsycINFO Database Record

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. American Sociological Association. The Importance of Collecting Data and Doing Social Scientific Research on Race. Washington, D.C: American Sociological Association; 2003.
    1. Bauman K. Direct measures of poverty as indicators of economic need: evidence from the survey of income and program participation. Washignton D.C: U.S. Census Bureau; 1998. U.S. Census Bureau Population Division Technical Working Paper No. 30.
    1. Braveman PA, Cubbin C, et al. Socioeconomic Status in Health Research: One Size Does Not Fit All. JAMA. 2005;294(22):2879–2888. - PubMed
    1. Braveman PA, Cubbin C, et al. Socioeconomic disparities in health in the United States: what the patterns tell us. American Journal of Public Health. 2010;100:S186–196. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Callis RR, Kresin M. Residential Vacancies and Homeownership in the Fourth Quarter 2014. Washington D.C: U. S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce; 2015.

Publication types

  NODES
Association 11
INTERN 2
twitter 2