Early-life Socioeconomic Position and the Accumulation of Health-related Deficits by Midlife in the 1958 British Birth Cohort Study.

Early-life Socioeconomic Position and the Accumulation of Health-related Deficits by Midlife in the 1958 British Birth Cohort Study. Am J Epidemiol. 2021 Feb 17;: Authors: Rogers NT, Blodgett JM, Searle SD, Cooper R, Davis DHJ, Pinto Pereira SM Abstract Reducing population levels of frailty is an important goal and preventing its development in mid-adulthood could be pivotal. There is limited evidence on associations between childhood socioeconomic position (SEP) and frailty. Using 1958 British birth cohort data (followed from 1958 to 2016; N=8711), we aimed to: (i) establish the utility of measuring frailty in mid-life, by examining associations between a 34-item frailty index at 50y (FI50y) and mortality (50-58y) and, (ii) examine associations between early-life SEP and FI50y, and investigate whether these associations were explained by adult SEP. Hazard ratios (HRs) for mortality increased with increasing frailty, e.g., HRsex-adjusted was 4.07(95% CI:2.64,6.25) for highest vs. lowest fifth of FI50y. Lower early-life SEP was associated with higher FI50y. Compared with participants born in the highest social class, the estimated total effect on FI50y was 42.0%(35.5%,48.4%) for participants born in the lowest class, with the proportion mediated by adult SEP being 0.45(0.35,0.55). Mediation by adult SEP was negligible, for other early-life SEP classes. Findings suggest that early-life SEP is associated with frailty and that adult SEP ...
Source: Am J Epidemiol - Category: Epidemiology Authors: Tags: Am J Epidemiol Source Type: research