Objective and subjective assessments of socioeconomic status and their relationship to self-rated health in an ethnically diverse sample of pregnant women.

A new measure of subjective socioeconomic status (SES) was examined in relation to self-rated physical health in pregnant women. Except among African Americans, subjective SES was significantly related to education, household income, and occupation. Subjective SES was significantly related to self-rated health among all groups. In multiple regression analyses, subjective SES was a significant predictor of self-rated health after the effects of objective indicators were accounted for among White and Chinese American women; among African American women and Latinas, household income was the only significant predictor of self-rated health. After accounting for the effects of subjective SES on health, objective indicators made no additional contribution to explaining health among White and Chinese American women; household income continued to predict health after accounting for subjective SES among Latinas and African American women.