Socioeconomic Position Across the Life Course and Cognitive Ability Later in Life: The Importance of Considering Early Cognitive Ability

SummaryA cross sectional and prospective analysis of 3,745 British women aged 60–79 years at baseline was undertaken. Among these women there were 570 prevalent cases of coronary heart disease (CHD) and 151 new cases among 12,641 person-years of follow up of women who were free of CHD at baseline. Both fibrinogen and CRP were associated with indicators of socioeconomic position in childhood and adulthood and there was a cumulative effect of socioeconomic position from across the life course. The age-adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of prevalent CHD for a 1 unit (1 g/L) increase in fibrinogen was 1.29 (1.12, 1.49); with full adjustment for all potential confounding factors this attenuated to 1.09 (0.93, 1.28). The hazards ratio for incident CHD among those free of disease at baseline was 1.28 (1.00, 1.64); with full adjustment for all potential confounding factors this attenuated to 1.09 (0.84, 1.44). Similar effects of adjustment for confounding factors were seen for the associations between CRP and both prevalent and incident CHD. By contrast, the strong positive association between smoking (an established causal risk factor for CHD) and CHD was not attenuated by adjustment for life course socioeconomic position or other risk factors. We conclude that fibrinogen and CRP predict CHD but may not be causally related to it.

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Early-life circumstances and the risk of function-limiting long-term conditions in later life

Longitudinal and Life Course Studies ◽

10.1332/175795919x15762565000695 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 157-180

Author(s):

Matthew H. Iveson ◽

Chris Dibben ◽

Ian J. Deary

Keyword(s):

Life Course ◽

Cognitive Ability ◽

Early Life ◽

Economic Status ◽

Functional Limitation ◽

Later Life ◽

Socio Economic Status ◽

Childhood Cognitive Ability ◽

The Life Course

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.

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Associations between indicators of socioeconomic position and DNA methylation: A systematic review

10.1101/2021.01.21.21250199 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Janine K. Cerutti ◽

Alexandre A. Lussier ◽

Yiwen Zhu ◽

Jiaxuan Liu ◽

Erin C. Dunn

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Dna Methylation ◽

Life Course ◽

Socioeconomic Position ◽

Prenatal Development ◽

Future Research ◽

Socioeconomic Environment ◽

The Life Course ◽

Study Designs

AbstractSocioeconomic position (SEP) is a major determinant of health across the life course. Yet, little is known about the biological mechanisms explaining this relationship. One possible explanation is through an epigenetic process called DNA methylation (DNAm), wherein the socioeconomic environment causes no alteration in the DNA sequence but modifies gene activity, gene expression, and therefore long-term health. To understand the evidence supporting a potential SEP-DNAm link, we performed a systematic review of published empirical findings on the association between SEP (from prenatal development to adulthood) and DNAm measured across the life course, with an eye toward evaluating how the timing, duration, and type of SEP exposure influenced DNAm. Across the 37 studies we identified, there was some evidence for the effect of SEP timing and duration on DNAm, with early-life SEP and persistently low SEP being particularly strong indicators of DNAm. Different indicators of SEP also had some unique associations with DNAm profiles, suggesting that SEP is not a singular concept, but rather that different aspects of the socioeconomic environment can shift DNAm patterns through distinct pathways. These differences with respect to SEP timing, duration, and type were notable because they were detected even among heterogenous study designs. Overall, findings from this review underscore the importance of analyzing SEP timing, duration, and type, given the complex relationship between SEP and DNAm across the lifespan. To guide future research, we highlight current limitations in the literature and propose recommendations for overcoming some of these challenges.

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Socioeconomic position over the life course from childhood and smoking status in mid-adulthood: results from a 25-year follow-up study

BMC Public Health ◽

10.1186/s12889-019-6483-0 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Jing Tian ◽

Seana Gall ◽

Kira Patterson ◽

Petr Otahal ◽

Leigh Blizzard ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Course ◽

Socioeconomic Position ◽

Smoking Status ◽

Follow Up Study ◽

The Life Course

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Abstract 032: Life-Course Socioeconomic Position Relates to Higher Arterial Stiffness in Adults From the ELSA-Brasil Cohort Study

Circulation ◽

10.1161/circ.137.suppl_1.032 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 137 (suppl_1) ◽

Author(s):

Debora M Coelho ◽

Lidyane V Camelo ◽

Luisa C Brant ◽

Luana G Giatti ◽

Antonio L Ribeiro ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cardiovascular Disease ◽

Cohort Study ◽

Arterial Stiffness ◽

Life Course ◽

Socioeconomic Position ◽

Maternal Education ◽

Adult Life ◽

Linear Regression Models ◽

Subclinical Cardiovascular Disease ◽

The Life Course

Background: Although the association between socioeconomic adversity and risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) is established, little is known about the effect of socioeconomic disadvantages across the life-course on arterial stiffness, an important marker of subclinical cardiovascular disease (CVD). Objective: To investigate whether exposure to adverse socioeconomic position (SEP) throughout the life course and especially in early life, is associated with increased arterial stiffness in adults. In addition, we assessed whether increasing number of unfavorable SEP events during the life course is associated with higher arterial stiffness. Methods: A total of 14,497 adults from the ELSA-Brasil cohort study baseline (2008-2010), aged between 34 and 75 years (45.5% men, mean age: 51.9, SD: 9.09), with validated values of femoral carotid pulse wave velocity (cfPWV), and with information available about maternal education were included. ELSA-Brazil is a multicenter cohort of civil servants from universities and research institutions of six Brazilian cities that aims to investigate the determinants of cardiovascular disease. Arterial stiffness was measured by cfPWV. Childhood and adulthood SEP was measured by maternal education and participants’ own education, respectively. Accumulation of SEP disadvantages across the life course was evaluated using a score including maternal and participants’ own education. The following variables were used for adjustments: age, sex, race, mean arterial pressure, heart rate, smoking, physical activity, diabetes, antihypertensive use. Multiple linear regression models were used. Results: Both lower childhood and adulthood SEP were associated with higher cfPWV in adult life, although the association with childhood SEP was not independent of adulthood SEP. However, cfPWV increased with increasing number of unfavorable SEP during the life course. Individuals exposed to low SEP in childhood and adulthood presented an average increase of 0.23m/s (95% CI: 0.13-0.34) in cfPWV in relation to individuals with high SEP in both periods of life. After all adjustments this association remained statically significant (β = 0.18, 95% CI: 0.07-0.29). Conclusion: Accumulation of exposures to socioeconomic disadvantages throughout life was associated with higher cfPWV in adults. Thus, it may imply that longer exposure to social disadvantages throughout life accelerates arterial aging.

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