Introduction: Differences in the health status and health behavior of children and adolescents are analyzed, taking the income situation of the family into account.
Method: The data is based on the second wave of the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS Wave 2, 2014-2017). Health outcomes are the subjective health, chronic health limitations, mental disorders, ADHD, consumption of fresh fruit, consumption of sugary soft drinks, physical activity, sports activity during leisure time, overweight, and obesity. The income situation is recorded using the equivalized household income.
Results: Poor children and adolescents are more likely to have health problems than their peers from the middle- and, especially, the high-income group; their health behavior is less favorable. The biggest relative income-related differences are found in subjective health. With statistical control for parental education and occupational status, income-related differences in health status remain consistent while being significantly reduced for health behavior.
Discussion: The results confirm that low family income has a significant impact on the health of children and adolescents. Partly, this also applies to their health behavior, whereby the observed differences between the income groups can be attributed mainly to parental education and occupational status. This shows once again that children and adolescents growing up in poverty should be a key target group for prevention and health promotion.
Keywords: Child health; Health inequality; KiGGS; Poverty; Social inequality.