Table 2.
Participants’ Socioeconomic status and Ability to Access Health Care, by Tertiles of the Neighborhood Socioeconomic Score: the CARDIA study, 1992–93 (N=2505)*
| Characteristics | Tertile, SES Range | P for trend |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lowest (n =835) |
Intermediate (n =836) |
Highest (n =834) |
||
| Number (%) | ||||
| Education Level | ||||
| Less than high school | 68 (8) | 16 (2) | 14 (2) | <0.001 |
| Graduated high school | 595 (71) | 527 (63) | 362 (43) | <0.001 |
| Some college | 172 (21) | 293 (35) | 458 (55) | <0.001 |
| Income Level | ||||
| Less than $16,000 | 235 (28) | 100 (12) | 56 (7) | <0.001 |
| $16,000 to $34,999 | 312 (37) | 255 (31) | 175 (21) | <0.001 |
| $35,000 to $49,999 | 166 (20) | 197 (24) | 135 (16) | 0.06 |
| $50,000 to $74,999 | 84 (10) | 182 (22) | 194 (23) | <0.001 |
| $75,000 or greater | 38 (5) | 102 (12) | 274 (33) | <0.001 |
| Employment | ||||
| Full time | 585 (70) | 647 (77) | 638 (77) | 0.003 |
| Difficulty paying for basic needs | ||||
| Very hard | 145 (17) | 71 (8) | 49 (6) | <0.001 |
| Somewhat hard | 219 (26) | 203 (24) | 151 (18) | <0.001 |
| Not hard | 471 (56) | 562 (68) | 634 (76) | <0.001 |
| Ability to access health care-no. (%) | ||||
| Has health insurance | 652 (78) | 693 (83) | 728 (87) | <0.001 |
| Identifies a regular source of care | 663 (79) | 711 (85) | 748 (90) | <0.001 |
| Has foregone care due to financial problems | 75 (9) | 91 (11) | 74 (9) | 0.95 |
*
Chi-square test and the Mantel-Haenszel extension test were performed to detect linear trends across 394 increasing tertiles of the Neighborhood SES score.