Search Results

Title: Does Asthma Impair Wealth Accumulation or Does Wealth Protect Against Asthma?
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Zagorsky, Jay L.
Smith, Patricia K.
Does Asthma Impair Wealth Accumulation or Does Wealth Protect Against Asthma?
Social Science Quarterly 97,5 (November 2016): 1070-1081.
Also: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ssqu.12293/abstract
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Wiley Online
Keyword(s): Asthma; Inheritance; Wealth

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Objective: We investigate the association between adult asthma and wealth, testing whether the disease impairs wealth accumulation (social selection model) or if wealth protects against asthma (social causation model).

Methods: We use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (n = 7,644) and linear and logistic regressions to estimate the association between wealth and asthma. Changes in relative wealth following an asthma diagnosis and asthma status by increases in wealth through inheritance provide evidence on the causal direction.

Results: Asthma, particularly severe asthma, is associated with lower wealth. Wealth ranking does not change after a diagnosis of asthma, but inheriting a substantial sum is associated with a lower risk of severe asthma.

Conclusion: Wealth appears to protect against severe asthma, supporting the social causation model of disease.

Bibliography Citation
Zagorsky, Jay L. and Patricia K. Smith. "Does Asthma Impair Wealth Accumulation or Does Wealth Protect Against Asthma?" Social Science Quarterly 97,5 (November 2016): 1070-1081.