The long-term health implications of poor childhood health: Evidence from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe.

RODRÍGUEZ LÓPEZ, SANTIAGO; MYRSKYLÄ, MIKKO; GONZÁLEZ MONTORO, ALDANA; MONTERO, PILAR

Liège

Congreso; 4th International SHARE User Conference; 2013

Université de Liege / Münich Centar for the Economics of Aging at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy

In this study we aim to (i) evaluate the long-term associations of childhood health with different adult health outcomes and trajectories; (ii) determine whether the consequences of growing up under poor health differ among European regions, and (iii) examine the mediating role of both the exposure to different socioeconomic situations over the life course and adult health-related risk behaviors on the childhood-adult health association. Our study is relevant by addressing not only the long-term associations between poor childhood health with both adult health and health trajectories, but also for examining how growing up under poor health might affect adult health differently across Europe. This is a longitudinal study along the first (baseline, 2004/05) and fourth (follow-up, 2011/12) waves of SHARE, focusing on participants from Northern (Denmark and Sweden), Western (Austria, Germany, Netherlands, France, Switzerland and Belgium) and Southern (Spain and Italy) European countries. We also use retrospective data on early life characteristics, including childhood health and early-life socioeconomic conditions obtained from the third wave (SHARELIFE, 2008/09). After excluding participants with missing data for demographic characteristics, childhood health status, both adult health at baseline and follow-up and other variables, our sample finally includes 7,118 subjects over 50 years old with complete data, participating in the three waves, over an average follow-up of 6.6 years. We evaluated three different adult health outcomes in wave 4: the self-reported health status, the number of chronic conditions and the maximum grip strength. Moreover, we describe trajectories across waves for the three outcomes. We used self-reports of childhood health as the key independent variable. We estimated the childhood-adult health association by means of linear and generalized regression, and controlling for early life conditions, adult SES, and health-related risk behaviors. We found that poor childhood health predicts adult self-reported health, chronic conditions and grip strength, even after controlling for both different socioeconomic indicators over the life course and adult health risk behaviors. Additionally, poor childhood health predicts declines in self-reported health, while controlling for covariates attenuated the associations for changes over time in chronic conditions and grip strength. Moreover, we found regional differences in the childhood-adult health association: growing under poor health is a stronger predictor of adult health in Northern relative to Western and Southern European countries. Understanding the mechanisms affecting health over the life course will contribute to planning of interventions targeting health disparities in Europe.