Authors

Julie A. Wagner

Document Type

Article

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences

Abstract

The role of socioeconomic status (SES) in explaining racial/ethnic disparities in diabetes remains unclear. We investigated disparities in self-reported diabetes complications, and the role of macro (e.g., income, education) and micro (e.g., ‘owning a home’ or ‘having a checking account’) SES indicators in explaining these differences. The sample included individuals with a diagnosis of diabetes (N=795) who were on average 55 years old, and 55.6% non-Hispanic White, 25.0% African American, and 19.4% Hispanic. Approximately 8% reported nephropathy, 35% reported retinopathy, and 16% reported cardiovascular disease. There were significant disparities in the rates of complications among non-Hispanic White, African American and Hispanic participants, with Hispanics having the highest rates of nephropathy, retinopathy, and cardiovascular disease. Macro SES indicators (e.g., income) mediated racial differences (i.e., non-Hispanic Whites vs. African Americans) in self-reported retinopathy, a combination of macro and more micro SES indicators (e.g., education, income, and ‘owning a home’ or ‘having a checking account’) mediated racial/ethnic differences (i.e., non-Hispanic Whites vs. Hispanics) in self-reported cardiovascular disease, and only micro SES indicators (e.g., ‘owning a home’ or ‘having a checking account’) mediated differences between lower income SES racial/ethnic minority groups (i.e., African Americans vs. Hispanics) in self-reported retinopathy and cardiovascular disease. Findings underscore that indicators of SES must be sensitive to the outcome of interest and the racial/ethnic groups being compared.

Comments

J Natl Med Assoc. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 December 5. Published in final edited form as: J Natl Med Assoc. 2013 Spring; 105(1): 51–58. PMCID: PMC3852686 NIHMSID: NIHMS525449

Download
COinS