Living conditions, lifestyles and self-rated health in Italy

We study the association between living conditions, lifestyles and self-rated health in Italy, using the module on lifestyles and health difficulties included in the 2022 edition of the European Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). In particular, we use logistic regression to estimate the association between three EU-SILC indicators of poverty or social exclusion (risk of poverty, material deprivation and severe housing deprivation), covering different aspects of socio-economic disadvantage, and self-rated health, controlling for a full set of individual covariates and for many lifestyle risk factors (body mass index, smoking, alcohol consumption, healthy diet, physical activity and social participation). We document the existence of a strong association between socio-economic deprivation and the risk of poor self-rated health. Moreover, we find a significant impact of lifestyles on this association, showing how observed inequalities in subjective health depend on the complex interactions between socio-economic deprivation and the adoption of healthy habits.