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Early-life socioeconomic position and the accumulation of health-related deficits by midlife in the 1958 British birth cohort study

Rogers, N; Blodgett, JM; Searle, S; Cooper, R; Davis, DHJ; Pinto Pereira, S; (2021) Early-life socioeconomic position and the accumulation of health-related deficits by midlife in the 1958 British birth cohort study. American Journal of Epidemiology , Article kwab038. 10.1093/aje/kwab038. (In press). Green open access

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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 only partially explains this association. Results highlight the importance of improving socioeconomic circumstances across the life course to reduce inequalities in mid-life frailty.

Type: Article
Title: Early-life socioeconomic position and the accumulation of health-related deficits by midlife in the 1958 British birth cohort study
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwab038
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwab038
Language: English
Additional information: © The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Supplementary d
Keywords: Birth cohort, childhood circumstances, early-life socioeconomic position, frailty, healthy ageing, life course
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Surgery and Interventional Sci
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Surgery and Interventional Sci > Department of Targeted Intervention
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Cardiovascular Science
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Cardiovascular Science > Population Science and Experimental Medicine
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Cardiovascular Science > Population Science and Experimental Medicine > MRC Unit for Lifelong Hlth and Ageing
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10117752
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