CLASS RELATIONS AND ALL-CAUSE MORTALITY: A TEST OF WRIGHT'S SOCIAL CLASS SCHEME USING THE BARCELONA 2000 HEALTH INTERVIEW SURVEY

• Published in: International journal of health services Vol. 41; no. 3; pp. 431 - 458
• Main Authors: Muntaner, Carles, Borrell, Carme, Solà, Judit, Marí-Dell'Olmo, Marc, Chung, Haejoo, Rodríguez-Sanz, Maica, Benach, Joan, Rocha, Kátia, Ng, Edwin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA Baywood Publishing Company, Inc 01.01.2011; SAGE Publications
• Subjects: Assets; Barcelona, Spain; Capitalism; Cause of Death; Census; Class; Deprivation; Education; Employment - statistics & numerical data; Equality; Female; Health; Health Behavior; Health inequality; Health Status; Health Surveys; Humans; Labour market; Location; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Markets; Middle class people; Mortality; Mortality Rates; Multivariate Analysis; Organizational Power; Sex Factors; Social Class; Social Inequalities in Health; Social Inequality; Sociological analysis; Sociology, Medical; Spain; Spain - epidemiology; Supervisors; Women; Workers; Working Class; Spain; Spain, Cataluna, Barcelona
• ISSN: 0020-7314; 1541-4469
• DOI: 10.2190/HS.41.3.c

The aim of this study is to test the effects of neo-Marxian social class and potential mediators such as labor market position, work organization, material deprivation, and health behaviors on all-cause mortality. The authors use longitudinal data from the Barcelona 2000 Health Interview Survey (N = 7,526), with follow-up interviews through the municipal census in 2008 (95.97% response rate). Using data on relations of property, organizational power, and education, the study groups social classes according to Wright's scheme: capitalists, petit bourgeoisie, managers, supervisors, and skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled workers. Findings indicate that social class, measured as relations of control over productive assets, is an important predictor of mortality among working-class men but not women. Workers (hazard ratio = 1.60; 95% confidence interval, 1.10-2.35) but also managers and small employers had a higher risk of death compared with capitalists. The extensive use of conventional gradient measures of social stratification has neglected sociological measures of social class conceptualized as relations of control over productive assets. This concept is capable of explaining how social inequalities are generated. To confirm the protective effect of the capitalist class position and the "contradictory class location hypothesis," additional efforts are needed to properly measure class among low-level supervisors, capitalists, managers, and small employers.