Cognitive ability in early adulthood is associated with later suicide and suicide attempt: the role of risk factors over the life course

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Sörberg ◽  
P. Allebeck ◽  
B. Melin ◽  
D. Gunnell ◽  
T. Hemmingsson

BackgroundCognitive ability/intelligence quotient (IQ) in youth has previously been associated with subsequent completed and attempted suicide, but little is known about the mechanisms underlying the associations. This study aims to assess the roles of various risk factors over the life course in explaining the observed relationships.MethodThe present investigation is a cohort study based on data on IQ test performance and covariates, recorded on 49 321 Swedish men conscripted in 1969–1970, at ages 18–20 years. Information on suicides and hospital admissions for suicide attempt up to the age of 57 years, childhood and adult socio-economic position, and adult family formation, was obtained from linkage to national registers.ResultsLower IQ was associated with increased risks of both suicide and suicide attempt during the 36 years of follow-up. The associations followed a dose–response pattern. They were attenuated by approximately 45% in models controlling for social background, mental ill-health, aspects of personality and behavior, adult socio-economic position and family formation. Based on one-unit decreases in IQ test performance on a nine-point scale, the hazard ratios between ages 35 and 57 years were: for suicide 1.19 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.13–1.25], fully adjusted 1.10 (95% CI 1.04–1.18); and for suicide attempt 1.25 (95% CI 1.20–1.31), fully adjusted 1.14 (95% CI 1.09–1.20).ConclusionsCognitive ability was found to be associated with subsequent completed and attempted suicide. The associations were attenuated by 45% after controlling for risk factors measured over the life course. Psychiatric diagnosis, maladjustment and aspects of personality in young adulthood, and social circumstances in later adulthood, contributed in attenuating the associations.

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-54
Author(s):  
Amy Heshmati ◽  
Gita D Mishra ◽  
Anna Goodman ◽  
Ilona Koupil

Socio-economic position (SEP) is associated with all-cause mortality across all stages of the life course; however, it is valuable to distinguish at what time periods SEP has the most influence on mortality. Our aim was to investigate whether the effect of SEP on all-cause mortality accumulates over the life course or if some periods of the life course are more important. Our study population were from the Uppsala Birth Cohort Multigenerational Study, born 1915–29 at Uppsala University Hospital, Sweden. We followed 3,951 men and 3,601 women who had SEP at birth available, during childhood (at age ten), in adulthood (ages 30–45) and in later life (ages 50–65) from 15 September 1980 until emigration, death or until 31 December 2010. We compared a set of nested Cox proportional regression models, each corresponding to a specific life course model (critical, sensitive and accumulation models), to a fully saturated model, to ascertain which model best describes the relationship between SEP and mortality. Analyses were stratified by gender. For both men and women the effect of SEP across the life course on all-cause mortality is best described by the sensitive period model, whereby being advantaged in later life (ages 50–65 years) provides the largest protective effect. However, the linear accumulation model also provided a good fit of the data for women suggesting that improvements in SEP at any stage of the life course corresponds to a decrease in all-cause mortality.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-180
Author(s):  
Matthew H. Iveson ◽  
Chris Dibben ◽  
Ian J. Deary

Older adults are particularly prone to function-limiting health issues that adversely affect their well-being. Previous work has identified factors from across the life course –childhood socio-economic status, childhood cognitive ability and education – that predict later-life functional outcomes. However, the independence of these contributions is unclear as later-in-the-life-course predictors are themselves affected by earlier ones. The present study capitalised on the recent linkage of the Scottish Mental Survey 1947 with the Scottish Longitudinal Study, using path analyses to examine the direct and indirect associations between life-course predictors and the risk of functional limitation at ages 55 (N = 2,374), 65 (N = 1,971) and 75 (N = 1,534). The odds of reporting a function-limiting long-term condition increased across later life. At age 55, reporting a functional limitation was significantly less likely in those with higher childhood socio-economic status, higher childhood cognitive ability and higher educational attainment; these associations were only partly mediated by other predictors. At age 65, adult socio-economic status emerged as a mediator of several associations, although direct associations with childhood socio-economic status and childhood cognitive ability were still observed. At age 75, only childhood socio-economic status and adult socio-economic status directly predicted the risk of a functional limitation, particularly those associated with disease or illness. A consistent pattern and direction of associations was observed with self-rated health more generally. These results demonstrate that early-life and adult circumstances are associated with functional limitations later in life, but that these associations are partly a product of complex mediation between life-course factors.


Author(s):  
Holly Syddall ◽  
Avan Aihie Sayer

This chapter describes a life course approach for understanding later life sustainability, focusing on grip strength as a marker of physical sustainability, and explaining how a life course approach recognizes that muscle strength in later life reflects not only rate of loss in later life, but also the peak attained earlier in life. We present evidence that risk factors operating throughout the life course have an impact on physical sustainability in later life with particular consideration of the effects of body size, socioeconomic position, physical activity, diet, and smoking. We have shown that low birth weight is associated with weaker grip strength across the life course and that there is considerable evidence for developmental influences on ageing skeletal muscle. Finally, a life course approach suggests opportunities for early intervention to promote later life physical sustainability; but optimal strategies and timings for intervention are yet to be identified.


2008 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 879-890 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Scazufca ◽  
P. R Menezes ◽  
R. Araya ◽  
V. D Di Rienzo ◽  
O. P Almeida ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 119 (5) ◽  
pp. 581-589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Maddock ◽  
Nida Ziauddeen ◽  
Gina L. Ambrosini ◽  
Andrew Wong ◽  
Rebecca Hardy ◽  
...  

AbstractLittle is known about long-term associations between the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet and conventional cardiovascular (CV)-risk factors as well as novel measures of vascular function. This study aimed to examine whether long-term adherence to a DASH-type diet in a British birth cohort is associated with conventional CV-risk factors and two vascular function markers, carotid intima–media thickness (cIMT) and pulse wave velocity (PWV). Data came from 1409 participants of the Medical Research Council (MRC) National Survey of Health and Development. Dietary intake was assessed at 36, 43, 53 and 60–64 years using 5-d estimated food diaries. The DASH-type diet score was calculated using the Fung index. Conventional CV-risk factors (blood pressure (BP) and lipids), cIMT in the right and/or left common carotid artery and PWV was measured when participants were 60–64 years. Associations between the DASH-type diet score and outcomes were assessed using multiple regression models adjusted for socioeconomic position, BMI, smoking and physical activity. Participants in higher sex-specific quintiles (Q) of the long-term DASH-type diet had lower BP (P≤0·08), higher HDL-cholesterol (P<0·001) and lower TAG (P<0·001) compared with people in Q1. Participants in Q5 of the long-term DASH-type diet had lower PWV (−0·28sd; 95 % CI −0·50, −0·07,Ptrend=0·01) and cIMT (−0·24sd; 95 % CI −0·44, −0·04,Ptrend=0·02) compared with participants in the Q1. This association was independent of the conventional CV-risk factors. Greater adherence to a DASH diet over the life course is associated with conventional CV-risk factors and independently associated with cIMT and PWV.


Epidemiology ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 17 (Suppl) ◽  
pp. S479-S480 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Meliker ◽  
G Jacquez ◽  
G Avruskin ◽  
A Kaufmann ◽  
P Goovaerts ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Jarl Mooyaart

AbstractThis chapter focuses on the linkages between socio-economic background, family formation and economic (dis)advantage and reveals to what extent the influence of parental education on family formation persists over time, i.e. across birth cohorts. The second part of this chapter examines to what extent the influence of socio-economic background persists over the life-course. This part covers: (1) the influence of parental education on union formation over the life-course, and (2) the influence of socio-economic background on income trajectories in young adulthood, after adjusting for the career and family pathways that young adults followed during the transition to adulthood, thereby examining the influence of socio-economic background on income beyond the first stage of young adulthood. This chapter reveals two key insights on the linkages between socio-economic background, family formation and (dis)advantage: (1) Whereas union and family formation patterns have changed across birth cohorts, socio-economic background continues to stratify union and family formation pathways; (2) Although the influence of socio-economic background on family formation and young adults’ economic position decreases throughout young adulthood, socio-economic background continues to have an impact in young adulthood.


2005 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Janneke Plantenga ◽  
Ivy Koopmans

Social security and the life course op men and woman Social security and the life course op men and woman The system of social security is under pressure. Social structures have not yet adequately adapted to men and women’s altered personal life course, reflected in changes in family formation and labour market behaviour. As a result, a care shortage and/or a labour market shortage may occur, because the increased need to combine work and family, is not yet facilitated by an accurate institutional structure. In this article it is stated that the system of social security needs to be adapted in two ways. First, the coverage of traditional risks like sickness and unemployment should allow for diversity and non-standard labour-market behaviour. Secondly, care responsibilities – or rather socially beneficial matters – should also be covered by the system of social security. Both changes could take shape in a three-pillar model; risks are basically covered by combination of rights from three sources (‘pillars’). The first pillar consists of generic and compulsory schemes for all citizens, which provides (basic) cover also in the case of care responsibilities. This first pillar arrangements could be supplemented by life course arrangements in the second pillar, generating flexibility and freedom of choice. Then there is the third pillar, which consists of personal forms of savings and insurance for citizens who wish to insure for a further supplement.


2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 919-923 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riccardo E Marioni ◽  
Archie Campbell ◽  
Generation Scotland ◽  
Caroline Hayward ◽  
David J Porteous ◽  
...  

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document