Inequality trends in general health among young people across the 2001, 2011, and 2021 UK Censuses

Inequality trends in general health among young people across the 2001, 2011, and 2021 UK Censuses | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Inequality trends in general health among young people across the 2001, 2011, and 2021 UK Censuses Katrin Metsis, Joanna Inchley, Andrew James Williams, Frank Sullivan This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6782398/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 24 Sep, 2025 Read the published version in Discover Public Health → Version 1 posted 9 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Background Evidence on health inequalities among young people is patchy compared to that among adults and younger children. This study examined the association between self-rated general health and a family’s socioeconomic position in young people. Methods We utilised 2001, 2011 and 2021 census microdata from England and Wales, and 2001 and 2011 data from Scotland. Descriptive methods were used to determine differences in general health status by sociodemographic variables, and logistic regression analysis to calculate the odds of reporting poor health according to the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification of the family reference person. Logistic regression models controlled for the effects of age, gender, household deprivation, and UK region. Results Compared to young people from households where the reference person belonged to the managerial or professional occupational group, all other groups, except those self-employed in 2001, had greater odds of reporting poor health. These differences were statistically significant (p < 0.001). The odds were highest among young people from households where the reference person had never worked or was long-term unemployed: 2.7 times in 2001, 3.1 times in 2011 and 3.6 times in 2021. The odds of reporting poor health increased with age and were greater among girls than among boys. Conclusions We observed a similar social gradient of self-reported poor health across the 2001, 2011 and 2021 census datasets; as disadvantage increased, the share of young people with fair or poor health increased. Young people Adolescents UK censuses Self-reported health Socioeconomic status National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC) Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files SupplementarymaterialsMetsisetal11.12.2024.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 24 Sep, 2025 Read the published version in Discover Public Health → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 21 Aug, 2025 Reviews received at journal 11 Aug, 2025 Reviews received at journal 07 Aug, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 03 Aug, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 17 Jul, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 15 Jul, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 27 Jun, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 24 Jun, 2025 First submitted to journal 24 Jun, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6782398","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":486290034,"identity":"cf2a68c1-c627-4872-8524-ba75d68d5f99","order_by":0,"name":"Katrin 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This study examined the association between self-rated general health and a family\u0026rsquo;s socioeconomic position in young people.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eMethods\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe utilised 2001, 2011 and 2021 census microdata from England and Wales, and 2001 and 2011 data from Scotland. Descriptive methods were used to determine differences in general health status by sociodemographic variables, and logistic regression analysis to calculate the odds of reporting poor health according to the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification of the family reference person. Logistic regression models controlled for the effects of age, gender, household deprivation, and UK region.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eResults\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eCompared to young people from households where the reference person belonged to the managerial or professional occupational group, all other groups, except those self-employed in 2001, had greater odds of reporting poor health. These differences were statistically significant (p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001). The odds were highest among young people from households where the reference person had never worked or was long-term unemployed: 2.7 times in 2001, 3.1 times in 2011 and 3.6 times in 2021. The odds of reporting poor health increased with age and were greater among girls than among boys.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eConclusions\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe observed a similar social gradient of self-reported poor health across the 2001, 2011 and 2021 census datasets; as disadvantage increased, the share of young people with fair or poor health increased.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Inequality trends in general health among young people across the 2001, 2011, and 2021 UK Censuses","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-07-17 19:03:52","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6782398/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Revision requested","date":"2025-08-21T15:31:57+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-08-11T17:29:31+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-08-07T08:57:07+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"292458895839341944770073011107222111732","date":"2025-08-03T14:56:49+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"285692288398472683697113192508744429529","date":"2025-07-17T09:43:27+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2025-07-15T08:49:11+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2025-06-27T07:02:49+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2025-06-24T09:24:34+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Discover Public Health","date":"2025-06-24T09:21:06+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"discover-public-health","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"Learn more about [Discover Public Health](https://link.springer.com/journal/12982)","snPcode":"12982","submissionUrl":"https://submission.springernature.com/new-submission/12982/3","title":"Discover Public Health","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Discover Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"979ea962-4527-40d5-a473-0d8606b21c08","owner":[],"postedDate":"July 17th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"published-in-journal","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-09-29T16:07:44+00:00","versionOfRecord":{"articleIdentity":"rs-6782398","link":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12982-025-00975-y","journal":{"identity":"discover-public-health","isVorOnly":false,"title":"Discover Public Health"},"publishedOn":"2025-09-24 15:57:32","publishedOnDateReadable":"September 24th, 2025"},"versionCreatedAt":"2025-07-17 19:03:52","video":"","vorDoi":"10.1186/s12982-025-00975-y","vorDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12982-025-00975-y","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6782398","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6782398","identity":"rs-6782398","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}