Giesinger, I;
Goldblatt, P;
Howden-Chapman, P;
Marmot, M;
Kuh, D;
Brunner, E;
(2014)
Association of socioeconomic position with smoking and mortality: the contribution of early life circumstances in the 1946 birth cohort.
Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health
, 68
(3)
pp. 275-279.
10.1136/jech-2013-203159.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: A large part of the socioeconomic mortality gradient can be statistically accounted for by social patterning of adult health behaviours. However, this statistical explanation does not consider the early life origins of unhealthy behaviours and increased mortality risk. METHODS: Analysis is based on 2132 members of the MRC National Survey of Health and Development with mortality follow-up and complete data. Smoking behaviour was summarised by pack-years of exposure. Socioeconomic circumstances were measured in childhood (father's social class (age 4), maternal education (age 6)) and age 26 (education attainment, home ownership, head of household social class). We estimated the direct effect of early circumstances, the indirect effect through smoking and the independent direct effect of smoking on inequality in all-cause mortality from age 26 to 66. RESULTS: Mortality risk was higher in those with lower socioeconomic position at age 26, with a sex-adjusted HR (relative index of inequality) of 1.97 (95% CI 1.18 to 3.28). Smoking and early life socioeconomic indicators together explained 74% of the socioeconomic gradient in mortality (the gradient). Early life circumstances explained 47% of the gradient, 23.5% directly and 23.0% indirectly through smoking. The explanatory power of smoking behaviour for the gradient was reduced from 50.8% to 28% when early life circumstances were added to the model. CONCLUSIONS: Early life socioeconomic circumstances contributed importantly to social inequality in adult mortality. Our life-course model focusing on smoking provides evidence that social inequalities in health will persist unless prevention strategies tackle the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage and risk.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Association of socioeconomic position with smoking and mortality: the contribution of early life circumstances in the 1946 birth cohort |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1136/jech-2013-203159 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jech-2013-203159 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2013 The Authors. This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
| Keywords: | Cohort studies, Inequalities, Mortality, Smoking, Socio-Economic |
| 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 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 Epidemiology and Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Epidemiology and Public Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1416300 |
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