Until Death Do Us Part. The Influence of Own and Partner's Socioeconomic Status on the Health of Spanish Middle-Aged Population

To explore whether the influence of a partner's socioeconomic status (SES) on health has an additive or a combined effect with the ego's SES.

With data on 4533 middle-aged (30-59) different-sex couples from the 2012 Spanish sample of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey, we apply separate sex-specific logistic regression models to calculate predicted probabilities of having less than good self-perceived health according to individual and partner's characteristics separately and combined.

Both approaches led to similar results: Having a partner with better SES reduces the probabilities of not having good health. However, the combined approach is more precise in disentangling SES effects. For instance, having a higher educated partner only benefits health among Spanish low-educated men, while men's health is worse if they have a working spouse. Conversely, women's health is positively influenced if at least one couple member is economically active.

There are significant health differences between individuals according to their own and their partner's SES in an apparently advantageous population group (i.e., individuals living with a partner). The combinative approach permits obtaining more precise couple-specific SES profiles.