Education and income, as two primary socioeconomic indicators, are often used interchangeably in health research. However, there is a lack of clear distinction between these two indicators concerning their associations with health. In this study, using the Lifelines cohort data, we investigated the separate and combined effects of education and income in relation to incident type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in the general population.
Our results show that education and income were both independently associated with incident type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The combined associations of these two socioeconomic indicators revealed that within each education or income level, substantial health disparities existed across strata of the other socioeconomic indicator. Education and income are two equally important socioeconomic indicators in health, and should be considered simultaneously in health research and policymaking.

Read full article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-022-07548-8)