Socieconomic position and political participation in terms of voting among elderly 77+ in Sweden

Introduction: Political participation e.g. voting is important for the possibility to influence national and regional politics. From an egalitarian perspective it is desirable that all persons independent of age, sex, and socioeconomic position have the possibility to vote. The association between socioeconomic position and health, and between socioeconomic position and life situation among elderly is well studied; less is known about the association between socioeconomic position and political participation. We study the relation between three measures of socioeconomic position (social class based on occupation, years of education, and income) and voting. Methods: Two nationally representative sample of Swedes aged 53 to 75 where interviewed in 1968 and 1981 respectively. Survivors from 1968 where again interviewed in 1992 (n = 461), survivors from 1981 in 2002 (n = 614). Both 1992 and 2002 were election years in Sweden. A single item question regarding voting was posed – did you vote in the election. Logistic regressions controlling for sex, age, age-square, walking ability (walking 100 meters and walking stairs) and walking aids (no aids/cane(s), quadruped(s), crutch(es), and walker/wheelchair/ never go out) was used. Results: Significant differences in voting was found for both men and women for all three measures of socioeconomic position – persons with a high socioeconomic position was more likely to have voted. The associations were stronger for education and income and less strong for social class. The relation to social class was only significant on the 10-percent level among men. The associations were stronger among men than among women for all three measures of socioeconomic position. A significantly lower proportion of women voted.   Conclusions: There are systematic differences in political participation measured as voting. This might indicate that there are systematic injustices in the possibility to vote.