Life Course Socioeconomic Position and Health in Older Adulthood: A Formal Mediation Analysis in the 1958 British Birth Cohort

Yiling Guo , Center for Longitudinal Studies
Alissa Goodman, Center for Longitudinal Studies
George Ploubidis, UCL
Alina Pelikh, University College London

Childhood socioeconomic position (SEP) is a key determinant of later-life health. To our knowledge, no prospective study has examined whether childhood SEP remains associated with health at the threshold of older age and the extent to which any such association is mediated by adult SEP. Using data from the 1958 British Birth Cohort, we examined associations between childhood social class and a range of health outcomes at age 62. We used interventional causal mediation analysis to assess the extent to which these associations were mediated by adult SEP, including education, occupational class, housing tenure, and income. We found that disadvantaged childhood socioeconomic position remained associated with poorer health at age 62, after accounting for adult socioeconomic position. The degree of mediation varied by outcome and by sex, with adult socioeconomic factors explaining part, but not all, of the association. These findings suggest that population-level improvements in adult socioeconomic position could reduce, but are unlikely to eliminate, later-life health inequalities associated with childhood SEP.

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 Presented in Session P1. Families, Fertility, and the Life Course 1