The role of cultural capital in the relationship between socioeconomic status and health outcomes: the case of hemodialysis patient compliance

Abstract

This chapter attempts to clarify the underlying mechanisms of the relationship between socioeconomic status and health outcomes. Former studies of this relationship have largely focused on the materialist predictors of health outcomes, examining variables such as income, access to healthcare, or quality of housing. The current study, by contrast, looks at individuals’ behaviors and attitudes, particularly in relation to physicians, and their impact on the quality of care patients receive. Using data from a sample of 64 hemodialysis patients in a middle-class suburb of Long Island, I examined the effect of comfort and ease with doctors and willingness to engage them on patient compliance. The findings suggest that patients who are more comfortable asking their doctors how they feel, and those that push for more information in general, tend to be more compliant, and therefore enjoy better and more successful patient outcomes.

Citation

Bugyi, P. (2009), "The role of cultural capital in the relationship between socioeconomic status and health outcomes: the case of hemodialysis patient compliance", Jacobsk Ronenfeld, J. (Ed.) Social Sources of Disparities in Health and Health Care and Linkages to Policy, Population Concerns and Providers of Care (Research in the Sociology of Health Care, Vol. 27), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 185-209. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0275-4959(2009)0000027011