Socioeconomic deprivation, subjective health, and civil optimism

Background: Socioeconomic disparities in health can stifle social integration, causing a serious social conflict. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of socioeconomic deprivation on subjective health and to investigate the mediating effects of civil optimism on the relationship between socioeconomic deprivation and subjective health.

Methods: A path analysis was conducted to analyze the data which were derived from Wave I (2008) of the Seoul Welfare Panel Data(N=1,965).

Results: The results regarding socio-demographic factors are the following: socioeconomic deprivation is significantly higher among those who are female, older, less educated, living without a spouse, and having lower income; subjective health is higher among those who are male, younger, and more educated. Civil optimism was found to be negatively associated with deprivation but positively with income level. In terms of the relationship between deprivation, civil optimism, and subjective health, deprivation level is reversely linked to subjective health and civil optimism, while the level of civil optimism has positive effects on the level of subjective health.

Conclusion: The findings suggest that civil optimism has a partial mediation effect on the way that social deprivation influences subjective health. Based on these findings, the followings are suggested: the impact of socioeconomic deprivation on health disparities needs to be alleviated; a community-based social safety net should be constructed in order to prevent harming of civil optimism; and multi-dimensional health policies should be implemented.