The relationship of individual and neighbourhood deprivation with morbidity in older adults: an observational study

• European Journal of Public Health
• Advance Access
• 10.1093/eurpub/ckt160

1. Kelvin P. Jordan¹, 
2. Richard Hayward¹, 
3. Eyitope Roberts¹, 
4. John J. Edwards¹ and
5. Umesh T. Kadam¹,²

+Author Affiliations

1. 1 Arthritis Research UK Primary Care Centre, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK
2. 2 The Health Services Research Unit, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5NB, UK

1. Correspondence: Kelvin Jordan, Arthritis Research UK Primary Care Centre, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK, Tel: +44 1782 733924, Fax: +44 1782 733911, e-mail:k.p.jordan@keele.ac.uk

Abstract

The objective was to determine the relative association of social class and neighbourhood deprivation with primary care consultation for eight morbidities. In 18 047 survey responders aged +50 years, living in more deprived neighbourhoods was independently associated with new consultation for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, ischaemic heart disease, diabetes, asthma and depression. Lower social class was associated with diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. No such associations were found with otitis media, osteoarthritis or upper respiratory tract infection. These findings suggest a role of social environment in certain morbidities and indicate the importance of identifying and acting on neighbourhood deprivation to reduce health inequalities.

• © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

1. Eur J Public Health (2013)doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckt160First published online: October 21, 2013

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