The role of socioeconomic conditions throughout the lifecourse and health behaviors in the childhood-adult's health association: Evidence from ten European countries

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

New Orleans

Congreso; 66th Annual Scientific Meeting of The Gerontological Society of America; 2013

Gerontological Society of America

Poorer childhood health is associated with poorer health in adulthood. The effect of lifecourse exposure to different socioeconomic situations in adult?s physical health decline remains to be elucidated. This study aims to i) examine the association between childhood health and 7-years decline in adult?s health; and to ii) evaluate to what extent the socioeconomic conditions throughout the lifecourse and adult?s health related risk behaviors mediate the childhood-adult?s health association. We analyzed data from 12,583 non-institutionalized persons aged 50 years or older from 10 European countries who participated in Wave 1 (2004/05), Wave 3 (2008/09) and Wave 4 (2011/12) of the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe. Lifecourse socioeconomic conditions were defined by childhood socioeconomic status, exposure to mid-life traumatic events and adult?s years of education. The association between childhood health status and 7-years evolution in adult?s functional impairment -namely limitations in basic and instrumental activities of daily living and grip strength-, was established using generalized linear mixed-models. After adjusting for lifecourse socioeconomic conditions and adult?s health behaviors (physical inactivity -neither moderate nor vigorous-, obesity, and smoking), we found fair and poor health during childhood to be associated with increased physical impairment when compared to excellent health during childhood. Our results contribute to existing evidence showing that lifecourse socioeconomic conditions and health-related risk behaviors are not enough to explain the childhood-adult?s health association.