Income non-reporting: implications for health inequalities research

摘要

Objectives-To determine whether, in the context of a face to face interview, socio- economic groups differ in their propensity to provided details about the amount of their personal income, and to discuss the likely consequences of any differences for studies that use income based measures of socioeconomic position. Design and setting-The study used data From the 1995 Australian Health Survey. The sample was selected using a stratified Multi-stage area deign that covered Urban and rural areas across all States And Territories and included non- institutionalised residents of private and Non-private dwellings. The response rate Was 91.5/100 for selected dwellings and 97.0/100 for persons within dwellings. Data were collected using face to face inter- views. Income response, the dependent measure, was binary coded (0 if income was reported and 1 for refusals, "don't knows" and insufficient information). So- cioeconomic position was measured using employment status, occupation, education and main income source. The socioeco- nomic characteristics of income non- reporters were initially examined using sex specific age adjusted proportions with 95/100 confidence intervals. Multivariate analysis was performed using logistic regression.