Comparisons of individual- and area-level socioeconomic status as proxies for individual-level measures: evidence from the Mortality Disparities in American Communities study

Table 2 Spearman’s correlation coefficients for associations between individual-level SES characteristics and census tract- and county-level SES characteristics, Mortality Disparities in American Communities study

Individual-level characteristic	Census tract-level characteristic	County-level characteristic
Individual-level characteristic	r	r
Household income
Above US median	0.232	0.157
Poverty level
≤ 100% FPL	0.122	0.067
Education
Has high school degree	0.158	0.096
Has college degree	0.225	0.150
Employment/occupation
Is unemployed^a	0.048	0.028
Employed in blue-collar industry^b	0.070	0.032
Other characteristics
Owns home	0.230	0.119
Foreign born	0.263	0.245

For household income, education, and owns home, having a value of 1 was considered low risk for health outcomes, while having a value of 0 was considered high risk; in contrast, for poverty, employment/occupation, and foreign born, having a value of 1 was considered high risk, while having a value of 0 was considered low risk. All p < .0001
US United States, FPL federal poverty level
^aUnemployment was measured among participants who reported being in the workforce (e.g., excluding retirees)
^bEmployment in a blue-collar industry was measured among participants who reported being employed (i.e., excluding unemployed participants)

ISSN: 1478-7954