Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

At a glance: The STEP trials

A round-up of the STEP phase 3 clinical trials evaluating semaglutide for weight loss in people with overweight or obesity.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
International Journal for Equity in Health
Published in: International Journal for Equity in Health 1/2015

Open Access 01-12-2015 | Research

The relationship between socioeconomic status/income and prevalence of diabetes and associated conditions: A cross-sectional population-based study in Saskatchewan, Canada

Authors: Yelena Bird, Mark Lemstra, Marla Rogers, John Moraros

Published in: International Journal for Equity in Health | Issue 1/2015

Login to get access

Abstract

Introduction

The role that socioeconomic status/income play in accounting for the increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes has not been sufficiently studied in Canada. The primary purpose of the present study was to determine the unadjusted and adjusted effect of income on type 2 diabetes. The secondary purpose was to determine the adjusted effect of income on diabetes associated conditions such as high blood pressure and being overweight or obese, and its main behavioral factor of physical inactivity.

Methods

This is a cross-sectional, population-based study. Data was analyzed from four cycles of the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS). It was conducted by Statistics Canada and covered the time period of 2000–2008 in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. In this study, four separate and distinct multivariate models were built to determine the independent effect of income on type 2 diabetes and the associated conditions of high blood pressure, being overweight or obese, and physical inactivity.

Results

The total sample size was comprised of 27,090 residents from Saskatchewan. After statistically controlling for age, only six covariates were independently associated with type 2 diabetes prevalence including: having high blood pressure (OR = 3.26), visible minority cultural status (OR = 2.17), being overweight or obese (OR = 1.97), being of male gender (OR = 1.76), having a household income of $29,999 per year (OR = 1.63) and being physically inactive (OR = 1.15).

Conclusions

In this study, household income was strongly and independently associated with type 2 diabetes prevalence, its associated conditions of high blood pressure and being overweight or obese, and its main behavioral factor of physical inactivity. We suggest that income is an important but frequently overlooked factor for type 2 diabetes and worthy of further investigation, appropriate public debate and timely policy intervention.
Literature
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Rose G. The strategy of preventive medicine. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1992.
6.
7.
Agardh E, Allebeck P, Hallqvist J, Maradi T, Sidorchuk A. Type 2 diabetes incidence and socio-economic position: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Epidemiol. 2011;40(3):804–18.CrossRefPubMed
8.
Abu Saveed M, Ali L, Hussain MZ, Rumi MA, Banu A, Azad Khan AK. Effect of socioeconomic risk factors on the difference in prevalence of diabetes between rural and urban populations in Bangladesh. Diabetes Care. 1997;20:551–5.CrossRef
9.
Espelt A, Borrell C, Roskam AJ, Rodriguez-Sanz M, Stirbu I, Dalmau- Bueno A. Socioeconomic inequalities in diabetes mellitus across Europe at the beginning of the 21st century. Diabetologia. 2008;51:1971–9.CrossRefPubMed
10.
Robbins JM, Vaccarino V, Zhang H, Kasl SV. Socioeconomic status and type 2 diabetes in African American and non-Hispanic white women and men: evidence from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Am J Public Health. 2001;91:76–83.PubMedCentralCrossRefPubMed
11.
Dinca-Panaitescu S, Dinca-Panaitescu M, Bryant T, Daiski I, Pilkington B, Raphael D. Diabetes prevalence and income: Results of the Canadian Community Health Survey. Health Policy. 2011;99:116–23.CrossRefPubMed
12.
Lee DS, Chiu M, Manuel DG, Tu K, Wang X, Austin PC, et al. Trends in risk factors for cardiovascular disease in Canada : Temporal, socio-demographic and geographic factors. CMAJ. 2009;181(3–4):E55–66.PubMedCentralCrossRefPubMed
13.
Beland Y. Canadian Community Health Survey - Methodological overview. Health Rep. 2002;13(3):9–14.PubMed
14.
Lemstra M, Neudorf C, Mackenbach J, Nannapaneni U. High healthcare utilization and costs associated with lower socioeconomic status: results from a linked dataset. Can J Public Health. 2009;100(3):180–3.PubMed
15.
16.
17.
Ng E, Dasgupta K, Johnson J. An algorithm to differentiate diabetic respondents in the Canadian Community Health Survey. Health Rep. 2008;19:1. Statistics Canada Catalogue 82–003.
18.
19.
Rothman KJ, Greenland S. Modern Epidemiology. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins; 1998.
20.
Hosmer DW, Lemeshow S. Applied logistic regression. New York: Wiley; 1989.
21.
22.
Grant J, MacKay K, Manual P, McHugh T. Barriers to Optimizing Investments in the Built Environment to Reduce Youth Obesity: Policy-maker Perspectives. Can J Public Health. 2010;101(3):237–40.PubMed
23.
24.
Lemstra M, Neudorf C, Opondo J. Health disparity by neighborhood income. Can J Public Health. 2006;97:435–9.PubMed
25.
Lipscombe LL, Austin PC, Manuel DG, Shah BR, Hux JE, Booth GL. Income-related differences in mortality among people with diabetes mellitus. Can J Public Health. 2010;182(1):E1–E17.
26.
Eaton WW, Muntaner C. Socioeconomic stratification and mental disorder. In: Horwitz AV, editor. Scheid TL, editors. New York: Cambridge University Press; 1999. p. 259–83.
Metadata
Title
The relationship between socioeconomic status/income and prevalence of diabetes and associated conditions: A cross-sectional population-based study in Saskatchewan, Canada
Authors
Yelena Bird
Mark Lemstra
Marla Rogers
John Moraros
Publication date
01-12-2015
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
International Journal for Equity in Health / Issue 1/2015
Electronic ISSN: 1475-9276
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-015-0237-0

Other articles of this Issue 1/2015

International Journal for Equity in Health 1/2015 Go to the issue

Research

The role of social support and social networks in health information–seeking behavior among Korean Americans: a qualitative study

Research Article

Factors associated with avoidable hospitalisation of children younger than 2 years old: the 2006 Brazilian National Demographic Health Survey

Research Article

Spatial inequity in access to healthcare facilities at a county level in a developing country: a case study of Deqing County, Zhejiang, China

Research Article

Inequalities in suicide mortality rates and the economic recession in the municipalities of Catalonia, Spain

Commentary

Johan Mackenbach, awarded an honorary doctorate for his work on health inequalities, in a discussion of burning issues in tackling health inequalities

Systematic review

Disparities in hypertension among black Caribbean populations: a scoping review by the U.S. Caribbean Alliance for Health Disparities Research Group (USCAHDR)