Fundamental Causes' of Health Disparities: A Comparative Analysis of Canada and the United States

This article examines the relative impact of socioeconomic status as a `fundamental cause' of health disparities in Canada and the US. Fundamental cause theory suggests that persons of higher socioeconomic status have available a broad range of resources to benefit their health and therefore ho...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International sociology 2009-01, Vol.24 (1), p.93-113
Main Author: Willson, Andrea E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Canada
Care and treatment
Comparative Analysis
Disease
Economic inequality
Equality
Health
Health care industry
Health care policy
Health disparities
Health inequality
Health insurance
Health problems
Inequality
Medical research
Public health
Resources
Risk factors
Social policy
Socioeconomic factors
Socioeconomic status
Sociology
Sociology of health and medicine
U.S.A
United States
United States of America
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Summary:This article examines the relative impact of socioeconomic status as a `fundamental cause' of health disparities in Canada and the US. Fundamental cause theory suggests that persons of higher socioeconomic status have available a broad range of resources to benefit their health and therefore hold an advantage in warding off whatever particular threats to health exist at a given time. This leads to two predictions: (1) SES is more strongly associated with diseases that are more highly preventable than with less preventable diseases; and (2) SES has a stronger relationship to health in the US, where higher economic inequality and a lack of universal health insurance leads to a greater vying for resources. Findings indicate lower levels of SES increase the odds of experiencing a highly preventable disease relative to a less preventable disease in the US, but not in Canada, suggesting that social policies and level of economic inequality may buffer the relationship between socioeconomic resources and the incidence of preventable disease.
ISSN:0268-5809
1461-7242
DOI:10.1177/0268580908099155