EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Socioeconomic position in childhood and early adult life and risk of mortality: A prospective study of the mothers of the 1958 British birth cohort

C. Power, E. Hyppönen and G.D. Smith

American Journal of Public Health, 2005, vol. 95, issue 8, 1396-1402

Abstract: Objectives. We sought to establish whether women's childhood socioeconomic position influenced their risk of mortality separately from the effects of adult socioeconomic position. Methods. We examined 11855 British women aged 14 to 49 years, with mortality follow-up over a 45-year period. Results. Trends according to childhood social class were observed for all-cause mortality, circulatory disease, coronary heart disease, respiratory disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke, lung cancer, and stomach cancer, with higher death rates among members of unskilled manual groups. Associations attenuated after adjustment for adult social class, smoking, and body mass index. No trend was seen for breast cancer or accidents and violence. Adverse social conditions in both childhood and adulthood were associated with higher death rates from coronary heart disease and respiratory disease. Stomach cancer was influenced primarily by childhood conditions and lung cancer by factors in adult life. Conclusions. Socioeconomic position in childhood was associated with adult mortality in a large sample of British women.

Date: 2005
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2004.047340

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2004.047340_6

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2004.047340

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia

More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F Baum ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2004.047340_6