Many studies have concluded that when it comes to health and mortality, it is more important to be rich than poor! But most of these studies have only assessed health behaviors at the baseline.
One British study followed 10,000 civil servants for 25 years, checking on their diet, physical activity, smoking and alcohol consumption 4 times during the follow-up. When only the baseline health behaviors were considered the advantage was with the higher socioeconomic group. However, when the health behavior assessments during the follow-up were factored in, socioeconomic status was no longer significant.
PositiveTip: The health choices we make as individuals exert the greatest influence on our health and mortality–regardless of our socioeconomic status.