Poverty, Education Correlate with Self-Reported Health Status and Disease Rates in US

National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2007

Self-reported health status by education level

"The percentage of adults aged >25 years whose health was reported as excellent or very good increased with increased levels of education. Persons with a bachelor's degree or higher (73.1%) were nearly twice as likely to be reported as being in excellent or very good health as persons with less than a high school diploma (37.9%). Persons with less than a high school diploma were most likely to be reported as being in fair or poor health."

Poverty was associated with an increased likelihood to report specific diseases such as hypertension, heart attack, strokes and emphysema.

Cancer was not reported to vary significantly with poverty, but it did by race: "Eight percent of non-Hispanic white adults had ever been told they had some form of cancer compared with 5% of non-Hispanic black adults and 4% of Hispanic adults."

The NHIS also reports on diabetes, liver disease, arthritis and chronic pain.  It is a national sample survey of health status and conditions as reported by the survey respondents.  For details, see the NHIS reports at the following link:

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/major/nhis/reports_2007.htm