[Measurement of the socioeconomic status within the German Health Update 2009 (GEDA)]

Abstract

The socioeconomic status (SES) is a central analytical concept for epidemiologic research and health reporting in Germany. Within the German Cardiovascular Prevention Study (GCP), a multidimensional aggregated index of SES has been developed, which is used to this date. We have revised this index critically and reworked it according to the necessities of German health monitoring at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). The main changes involve the operationalization and categorization of the status-constituting dimensions education, occupation, and income as well as the categorization of the resulting socioeconomic status groups. This paper explains the steps of the revision process and the ideas behind it. In addition, it provides empirical evidence on the association of the revised index with three important health outcomes (self-rated health, obesity, and smoking) using data of the German Health Update 2009 (GEDA) study. It is planned to apply the revised SES concept in all studies on German health monitoring at the RKI, i.e., not only to GEDA but also to the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Adults (DEGS) and the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS) in the same way.