Are occupation and education interchangeable as social indicators in community health? A study in an employed population

Epidemiological studies and interventions to reduce inequalities in community health require the assignation of exhaustive and easy-to-obtain social indicators. Occupation and education are two of the most often used. In this study we attempt to evaluate the association between education and occupation among adult working population because if, in the absence of one of these two variables, it will be feasible to use the remaining with the lesser lost of socio-economic information. From a representative sample (n = 3091) of general population (18-65 years old) drawn out from a prevalence survey on chronic disease risk factors performed in the Region of Murcia, a log-lineal analysis has been made between education and occupation among working people (65.8% of males and 34.2% of females from the original sample). Men present significant association between managerial positions and university education. The association drops between clerks and high school graduates to increase among all manual workers with or without primary schooling education. Among women--with a lesser number of participants--the education/occupation association describes the same pattern but with higher magnitudes in the positive associations between managerial positions and university education. For both genders, the greatest associations are found in both diagonals of the education by occupation tables indicating: better occupation, more education, and the opposite. The classification of working people according to education and occupation presents association, internal consistency and gradient. In absence of comprehensive information regarding occupation, education could be an alternative as socio-economic indicator.