Heterogeneous Trajectories of Physical and Mental Health in Late Middle Age: Importance of Life-Course Socioeconomic Positions

Eunsun Kwon and Sojung Park
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Eunsun Kwon: Center for Social Science, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea
Sojung Park: George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in One Brookings Drive, Saint Louis, MO 63105, USA

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 6, 1-20

Abstract: Drawing on life course and cumulative disadvantage theory, this study examines heterogeneous trajectories of functional limitations and depressive symptoms among late middle-aged individuals. This study used prospective data from 6010 adults, 51 to 64 years old, collected over a 12-year-period from the Health and Retirement Study. Considering the empirical proposition that several physical and mental trajectories may exist, Latent Class Growth Modeling was used. Five heterogeneous patterns of joint trajectories ( Relatively healthy, Moderately improving, Steadily deteriorating, Steeply deteriorating, and Persistently high comorbid) were identified. Early life adversity was related to an increasing risk of declines in physical and mental health. The Persistently high comorbid class was characterized by a concentration of disadvantages over the life course. The development of public health interventions could help reduce co-existing physical and mental health problems, especially during late middle-age.

Keywords: cumulative disadvantage; life course; heterogeneous trajectories of physical and mental health; health disparities; late middle age (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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