caa a22 4500 606222545 CHVBK 20210128101134.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20151201xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s00038-015-0744-1 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s00038-015-0744-1 Are spouses' socio-economic classifications interchangeable? Examining the consequences of a commonly used practice in studies on social inequalities in health [Elektronische Daten] [Denise Muschik, Jelena Jaunzeme, Siegfried Geyer] Objectives: Indicators of socio-economic position are not always available for all subjects. To avoid losses of large parts of study populations, missing data are replaced by spouses' information. Despite this commonly practiced solution, systematic analyses of the consequences on substantive results of studies are rare. We examined the consequences of assigning the educational position of subjects to their partners. Methods: German statutory health insurance data from 2005 (N=1,801,744) and 2011 (N=1,987,707) were used. Diagnoses of type 2 diabetes were used as outcome. Effects were examined in terms of differences in diabetes prevalence and by the reproduction of social gradients in women and men as compared to their partners. Results: Social gradients were reproduced for subjects and for their partners, but diabetes prevalences were higher in partners. Conclusions: From a pragmatic point of view the practice of replacing missing information by spouses' information turned out as viable. However, the usefulness of this solution has to be examined in every case anew, because it may not be suitable for every health-related outcome. Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), 2015 Type 2 diabetes nationallicence Socio-economic position nationallicence Health inequalities nationallicence Education nationallicence Muschik Denise Medical Sociology Unit, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Strasse 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany aut Jaunzeme Jelena Medical Sociology Unit, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Strasse 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany aut Geyer Siegfried Medical Sociology Unit, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Strasse 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany aut International Journal of Public Health Springer International Publishing 60/8(2015-12-01), 953-960 1661-8556 60:8<953 2015 60 38 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-015-0744-1 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-015-0744-1 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Muschik Denise Medical Sociology Unit, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Strasse 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Jaunzeme Jelena Medical Sociology Unit, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Strasse 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Geyer Siegfried Medical Sociology Unit, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Strasse 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- International Journal of Public Health Springer International Publishing 60/8(2015-12-01), 953-960 1661-8556 60:8<953 2015 60 38