Education and income - United States, 2009 and 2011

The factors that influence the socioeconomic position of individuals and groups within industrial societies also influence their health. Socioeconomic position has continuous and graded effects on health that are cumulative over a lifetime. The socioeconomic conditions of the places where persons live and work have an even more substantial influence on health than personal socioeconomic position. In the United States, educational attainment and income are the indicators that are most commonly used to measure the effect of socioeconomic position on health. Research indicates that substantial educational and income disparities exist across many measures of health. A previous report described the magnitude and patterns of absolute and relative measures of disparity in noncompletion of high school and poverty in 2005 and 2009. Notable disparities defined by race/ethnicity, socioeconomic factors, disability status, and geographic location were identified for 2005 and 2009, with no evidence of a temporal decrease in racial/ethnic disparities, whereas socioeconomic and disability disparities increased from 2005 to 2009.