scholarly journals Welfare regimes modify the association of disadvantaged adult-life socioeconomic circumstances with self-rated health in old age

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 1352-1366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Sieber ◽  
Boris Cheval ◽  
Dan Orsholits ◽  
Bernadette W Van der Linden ◽  
Idris Guessous ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Household Income ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Middle Age ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Self Rated Health

Abstract Background Welfare regimes in Europe modify individuals’ socioeconomic trajectories over their life-course, and, ultimately, the link between socioeconomic circumstances (SECs) and health. This paper aimed to assess whether the associations between life-course SECs (early-life, young adult-life, middle-age and old-age) and risk of poor self-rated health (SRH) trajectories in old age are modified by welfare regimes (Scandinavian [SC], Bismarckian [BM], Southern European [SE], Eastern European [EE]). Methods We used data from the longitudinal SHARE survey. Early-life SECs consisted of four indicators of living conditions at age 10. Young adult-life, middle-age, and old-age SECs indicators were education, main occupation and satisfaction with household income, respectively. The association of life-course SECs with poor SRH trajectories was analysed by confounder-adjusted multilevel logistic regression models stratified by welfare regime. We included 24 011 participants (3626 in SC, 10 256 in BM, 6891 in SE, 3238 in EE) aged 50 to 96 years from 13 European countries. Results The risk of poor SRH increased gradually with early-life SECs from most advantaged to most disadvantaged. The addition of adult-life SECs differentially attenuated the association of early-life SECs and SRH at older age across regimes: education attenuated the association only in SC and SE regimes and occupation only in SC and BM regimes; satisfaction with household income attenuated the association across regimes. Conclusions Early-life SECs have a long-lasting effect on SRH in all welfare regimes. Adult-life SECs attenuated this influence differently across welfare regimes.

scholarly journals Life-Course Circumstances and Frailty in Old Age Within Different European Welfare Regimes: A Longitudinal Study With SHARE

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (6) ◽  
pp. 1326-1335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernadette Wilhelmina Antonia Van Der Linden ◽  
Stefan Sieber ◽  
Boris Cheval ◽  
Dan Orsholits ◽  
Idris Guessous ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Welfare Regime ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Socioeconomic Conditions ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Occupational Position ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Adverse Childhood

Abstract Objectives This study aimed to assess whether cumulative disadvantage in childhood misfortune and adult-life socioeconomic conditions influence the risk of frailty in old age and whether welfare regimes influence these associations. Method Data from 23,358 participants aged 50 years and older included in the longitudinal SHARE survey were used. Frailty was operationalized according to Fried’s phenotype as presenting either weakness, shrinking, exhaustion, slowness, or low activity. Confounder-adjusted mixed-effects logistic regression models were used to analyze associations of childhood misfortune and life-course socioeconomic conditions with frailty. Results Childhood misfortune and poor adult-life socioeconomic conditions increased the odds of (pre-)frailty at older age. With aging, differences narrowed between categories of adverse childhood experiences (driven by Scandinavian welfare regime) and adverse childhood health experiences (driven by Eastern European welfare regime), but increased between categories of occupational position (driven by Bismarckian welfare regime). Discussion These findings suggest that childhood misfortune is linked to frailty in old age. Such a disadvantaged start in life does not seem to be compensated by a person’s life-course socioeconomic trajectory, though certain types of welfare regimes affected this relationship. Apart from main occupational position, our findings do not support the cumulative dis/advantage theory, but rather show narrowing differences.

scholarly journals Do Welfare Regimes Moderate Cumulative Dis/advantages Over the Life Course? Cross-National Evidence from Longitudinal SHARE Data

2020 ◽  
Vol 75 (6) ◽  
pp. 1312-1325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Sieber ◽  
Boris Cheval ◽  
Dan Orsholits ◽  
Bernadette W A van der Linden ◽  
Idris Guessous ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Welfare Regime ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Childhood Health ◽  
Occupational Position ◽  
Self Rated Health ◽  
Adverse Childhood ◽  
Health Experiences

Abstract Objectives This study aimed to examine the cumulative disadvantage of different forms of childhood misfortune and adult-life socioeconomic conditions (SEC) with regard to trajectories and levels of self-rated health in old age and whether these associations differed between welfare regimes (Scandinavian, Bismarckian, Southern European, and Eastern European). Method The study included 24,004 respondents aged 50–96 from the longitudinal SHARE survey. Childhood misfortune included childhood SEC, adverse childhood experiences, and adverse childhood health experiences. Adult-life SEC consisted of education, main occupational position, and financial strain. We analyzed associations with poor self-rated health using confounder-adjusted mixed-effects logistic regression models for the complete sample and stratified by welfare regime. Results Disadvantaged respondents in terms of childhood misfortune and adult-life SEC had a higher risk of poor self-rated health at age 50. However, differences narrowed with aging between adverse-childhood-health-experiences categories (driven by Southern and Eastern European welfare regimes), categories of education (driven by Bismarckian welfare regime), and main occupational position (driven by Scandinavian welfare regime). Discussion Our research did not find evidence of cumulative disadvantage with aging in the studied life-course characteristics and age range. Instead, trajectories showed narrowing differences with differing patterns across welfare regimes.

scholarly journals Early-Life Adversities and Recalcitrant Smoking in Midlife: An Examination of Gender and Life-Course Pathways

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (11) ◽  
pp. 867-879
Author(s):  
Chioun Lee ◽  
Lexi Harari ◽  
Soojin Park
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Low Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Financial Strain ◽  
Low Ses ◽  
Family Instability ◽  
Family Problems ◽  
Low Socioeconomic ◽  
Logistic Regression Models

Abstract Background Little is known about life-course factors that explain why some individuals continue smoking despite having smoking-related diseases. Purpose We examined (a) the extent to which early-life adversities are associated with the risk of recalcitrant smoking, (b) psychosocial factors that mediate the association, and (c) gender differences in the associations. Methods Data were from 4,932 respondents (53% women) who participated in the first and follow-up waves of the Midlife Development in the U.S. National Survey. Early-life adversities include low socioeconomic status (SES), abuse, and family instability. Potential mediators include education, financial strain, purpose in life, mood disorder, family problems/support, and marital status. We used sequential logistic regression models to estimate the effect of early-life adversities on the risk of each of the three stages on the path to recalcitrant smoking (ever-smoking, smoking-related illness, and recalcitrant smoking). Results For women, low SES (odds ratio [OR] = 1.29; 1.06–1.55) and family instability (OR = 1.73; 1.14–2.62) are associated with an elevated risk of recalcitrant smoking. Education significantly reduces the effect of childhood SES, yet the effect of family instability remains significant even after accounting for life-course mediators. For men, the effect of low SES on recalcitrant smoking is robust (OR = 1.48; 1.10–2.00) even after controlling for potential mediators. There are noteworthy life-course factors that independently affect recalcitrant smoking: for both genders, not living with a partner; for women, education; and for men, family problems. Conclusions The findings can help shape intervention programs that address the underlying factors of recalcitrant smoking.

scholarly journals Family Poverty Over the Early Life Course and Recurrent Adolescent and Young Adult Anxiety and Depression: A Longitudinal Study

2010 ◽  
Vol 100 (9) ◽  
pp. 1719-1723 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jake M. Najman ◽  
Mohammad R. Hayatbakhsh ◽  
Alexandra Clavarino ◽  
William Bor ◽  
Michael J. O'Callaghan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Adolescent And Young Adult ◽  
Anxiety And Depression

scholarly journals The Life Course Construction of Inequalities in Health and Wealth in Old Age

2021 ◽  
pp. 97-109
Author(s):  
Michel Oris ◽  
Marie Baeriswyl ◽  
Andreas Ihle
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Differential Mortality ◽  
Active Ageing ◽  
Cumulative Processes ◽  
The Life Course

AbstractIn this contribution, we will mobilize the interdisciplinary life course paradigm to consider the processes through which individual heterogeneity in health and wealth is constructed all along life, from the cradle to old age. Considering altogether historical, family and individual times, the life course perspective has been developed in sociology, (lifespan) psychology and epidemiology, and has framed many important studies during the last four decades. The theory of cumulative disadvantage is for sure the most popular in social sciences, explaining how little inter-individual differences early in life expand all along life to reach maximal amplitude among the “young old” (before the selection by differential mortality at very old age). In lifespan psychology, the theory of cognitive reserve (educational level being a proxy) and its continuation, the theory of use or disuse (of cognition during adult life) have more or less the same explanatory power, cognition being a decisive precondition for active ageing and quality of life in old age. However, in spite of the success of those theoretical bodies, a prominent figure in the field, Glen Elder, recently observed that there is surprisingly little evidence for cumulative processes and that a wide variety of model specifications remain completely untested. This finding makes even more important a critical review of the literature which summarize several robust evidences, but also discuss contradictory results and suggest promising research tracks. This exercise considers the life course construction of inequalities in the distribution of objective resources older adults have (or not) “to live the life they own value” (to quote A. Sen 2001). But it is also crucial to consider the subjective component that is inherent to the understanding of well-being.

Perceptions of the Adult Life Course: A Cross-cultural Analysis

1992 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Ikels ◽  
Jennie Keith ◽  
Jeanette Dickerson-Putman ◽  
Patricia Draper ◽  
Christine Fry ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Variables ◽  
Five Factors ◽  
Structural Variables ◽  
The Life Course

ABSTRACTA team of seven anthropologists conducted a coordinated, cross- cultural investigation to examine how structural and cultural variables shape the strategies people employ to assure themselves a secure old age. Central to the investigation was the goal of determining how people in the societies involved (Hong Kong, the United States, Ireland, and Botswana) perceive old age and its place in the adult life course, e.g. whether they view old age as an improvement or a decrement compared with other stages of life and the characteristics on which they base their views. The seven sites were selected to ensure broad representation in terms of the key structural variables of scale, complexity, subsistence pattern, residential mobility, and population structure. Both across and within sites people differed in their willingness and ability to discuss the concept of the life course. We attribute this variation to five factors: (i) characteristics of the social field, (2) education, (3) cultural salience of age categorisation, (4) predictability of life events, and (5) variability in timing of normative social or work roles.

scholarly journals Early-life socioeconomic circumstances explain health differences in old age, but not their evolution over time

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (8) ◽  
pp. 703-711 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Cheval ◽  
Dan Orsholits ◽  
Stefan Sieber ◽  
Silvia Stringhini ◽  
Delphine Courvoisier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Health Indicators ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Healthy Ageing ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
Health Differences ◽  
Over Time

BackgroundEarly-life socioeconomic circumstances (SEC) are associated with health in old age. However, epidemiological evidences on the influence of these early-life risk factors on trajectories of healthy ageing are inconsistent, preventing drawing solid conclusion about their potential influence. Here, to fill this knowledge gap, we used a statistical approach adapted to estimating change over time and an outcome-wide epidemiology approach to investigate whether early-life SEC were associated with the level of and rate of decline of physical, cognitive and emotional functioning over time.MethodsWe used data on more than 23 000 adults in older age from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, a 12-year large-scale longitudinal study with repeated measurements of multiple health indicators of the same participants over time (2004 –2015, assessments every 2 years). Confounder-adjusted linear growth curve models were used to examine the associations of early-life SEC with the evolution of muscle strength, lung function, cognitive function, depressive symptoms and well-being over time.ResultsWe consistently found an association between early-life SEC and the mean levels of all health indicators at age 63.5, with a critical role played by the cultural aspect of disadvantage. These associations were only partly explained by adult-life SEC factors. By contrast, evidences supporting an association between early-life SEC and the rate of change in health indicators were weak and inconsistent.ConclusionsEarly-life SEC are associated with health in old age, but not with trajectories of healthy ageing. Conceptual models in life course research should consider the possibility of a limited influence of early-life SEC on healthy ageing trajectories.

scholarly journals Early life course processes leading to educational and economic attainment in young adulthood: Contributions of early socioeconomic adversity and education polygenic score

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. e0256967
Author(s):  
Kandauda A. S. Wickrama ◽  
Catherine Walker OˋNeal ◽  
Tae Kyoung Lee ◽  
Seonhwa Lee
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Educational Outcomes ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Economic Outcomes ◽  
European Ancestry ◽  
Polygenic Score ◽  
Prospective Longitudinal

The present study investigated an integrated life course model, drawn from the life course theoretical perspective, to elucidate youth’s additive, cascading, and cumulative life course processes stemming from early socioeconomic adversity and education polygenic score (education PGS) as well as potential interactions between them (GxE), which contribute to subsequent young adult socioeconomic outcomes. Additionally, the independent, varying associations among social and genetic predictors, life-stage specific educational outcomes (educational achievement in adolescence and educational attainment, in later stages), and young adult economic outcomes were examined. The study used prospective, longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent and Adult Health (Add Health) with a sample of 5,728 youth of European ancestry. Early family socioeconomic adversity and individual education PGS were associated with life stage-specific educational outcomes through additive and cascading processes linked to young adults’ economic outcomes (personal earnings) through a cumulative process. A GxE moderation existed between individuals’ education PGS and early socioeconomic adversity at multiple life stages, explaining variation in adolescent educational outcomes. Both early socioeconomic adversity and education PGS were persistently associated with youth’s educational and economic outcomes throughout the early life course. In sum, the findings based on the integrated life course model showed how additive, cascading, and cumulative processes were related and conditioned one another, generating specific life course patterns and outcomes. The findings highlight the value of incorporating molecular genetic information into longitudinal developmental life course research and provide insight into malleable characteristics and appropriate timing for interventions addressing youth developmental characteristics.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document