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

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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What role for the ‘long arm of childhood’ in social gradients in health? An international comparison of high-income contexts

Longitudinal and Life Course Studies ◽

10.1332/175795920x16025975665508 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Steven A. Haas ◽

Zhangjun Zhou ◽

Katsuya Oi

Keyword(s):

Life Course ◽

Early Life ◽

Economic Status ◽

Functional Limitation ◽

Later Life ◽

High Income ◽

Childhood Health ◽

Relative Contribution ◽

Early Life Factors

Social gradients in health have been a focus of research for decades. Two important lines of social gradient research have examined (1) international variation in their magnitude and (2) their life course / developmental antecedents. The present study brings these two strands together to explore the developmental origins of educational gradients in health. We leverage data spanning 14 high-income contexts from the Health and Retirement Study and its sisters in Europe. We find that early-life health and socio-economic status consistently attenuate educational gradients in multimorbidity and functional limitation. However, the relative contribution of early-life factors to gradients varies substantially across contexts. The results suggest that research on social gradients, and population health broadly, would benefit from the unique insights available from a conceptual and empirical approach that integrates comparative and life course perspectives.<br /><br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>The magnitude of educational gradients in later life health depend, in part, on childhood health and socioeconomic circumstances.</li><br /><li>The role of early life factors in educational gradients in health varies substantially across high income contexts.</li></ul>

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Body size throughout the life-course and incident benign prostatic hyperplasia-related outcomes and nocturia

BMC Urology ◽

10.1186/s12894-021-00816-5 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Saira Khan ◽

K. Y. Wolin ◽

R. Pakpahan ◽

R. L. Grubb ◽

G. A. Colditz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Body Size ◽

Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia ◽

Life Course ◽

Early Life ◽

Prostate Volume ◽

Late Life ◽

Later Life ◽

Normal Weight ◽

Prostatic Hyperplasia ◽

The Life Course

Abstract Background Existing evidence suggests that there is an association between body size and prevalent Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH)-related outcomes and nocturia. However, there is limited evidence on the association between body size throughout the life-course and incident BPH-related outcomes. Methods Our study population consisted of men without histories of prostate cancer, BPH-related outcomes, or nocturia in the intervention arm of the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial (PLCO) (n = 4710). Associations for body size in early- (age 20), mid- (age 50) and late-life (age ≥ 55, mean age 60.7 years) and weight change with incident BPH-related outcomes (including self-reported nocturia and physician diagnosis of BPH, digital rectal examination-estimated prostate volume ≥ 30 cc, and prostate-specific antigen [PSA] concentration > 1.4 ng/mL) were examined using Poisson regression with robust variance estimation. Results Men who were obese in late-life were 25% more likely to report nocturia (Relative Risk (RR): 1.25, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 1.11–1.40; p-trendfor continuous BMI < 0.0001) and men who were either overweight or obese in late-life were more likely to report a prostate volume ≥ 30 cc (RRoverweight: 1.13, 95% CI 1.07–1.21; RRobese: 1.10, 95% CI 1.02–1.19; p-trendfor continuous BMI = 0.017) as compared to normal weight men. Obesity at ages 20 and 50 was similarly associated with both nocturia and prostate volume ≥ 30 cc. Considering trajectories of body size, men who were normal weight at age 20 and became overweight or obese by later-life had increased risks of nocturia (RRnormal to overweight: 1.09, 95% CI 0.98–1.22; RRnormal to obese: 1.28, 95% CI 1.10–1.47) and a prostate volume ≥ 30 cc (RRnormal to overweight: 1.12, 95% CI 1.05–1.20). Too few men were obese early in life to examine the independent effect of early-life body size. Later-life body size modified the association between physical activity and nocturia. Conclusions We found that later-life body size, independent of early-life body size, was associated with adverse BPH outcomes, suggesting that interventions to reduce body size even late in life can potentially reduce the burden of BPH-related outcomes and nocturia.

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Concentration of Critical Events over the Life Course and Life Satisfaction later in life

10.31235/osf.io/s8e7h ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Chiara L. Comolli ◽

Danilo Bolano ◽

Laura Bernardi ◽

Marieke Voorpostel

Keyword(s):

Life Satisfaction ◽

Life Course ◽

Time Lag ◽

Early Adulthood ◽

Later Life ◽

Critical Events ◽

Family Work ◽

Negative Effect ◽

The Life Course

Critical events are occurrences that create turning points, disrupt individuals’ life courses and affect wellbeing. Here, we investigate how the co-occurrence of critical events and, in particular, the spacing in time of events across the life course influences life satisfaction in later life. We argue that life phases densely populated of critical events may translate into an acute resource drain affecting wellbeing in long term more strongly than if the same events were sparsely distributed. We use retrospective biographical information on critical events in family, work, health and residential trajectories in Switzerland to construct a life course Concentration Index of events based on the number, the time-lag between the occurrences and the number of life domains involved. Our results show that the higher is the concentration in time of critical events, the stronger will be their negative long-term effect on wellbeing, net of socio-demographic characteristics, of the total number of events ever experienced and of the time since the last event. Furthermore, such negative effect is even stronger if the person experienced periods dense of events during midlife and older adulthood than during youth or early adulthood.

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Health and socio-economic status over the life course

10.1515/9783110617245 ◽

2019 ◽

Keyword(s):

Life Course ◽

Economic Status ◽

Socio Economic Status ◽

The Life Course

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Long term effects of abuse in early life on depression and anxiety over the life course

Comprehensive Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.comppsych.2013.07.038 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 54 (8) ◽

pp. e28

Author(s):

Jutta Lindert ◽

Ondine von Ehrenstein ◽

Marc Weisskopf

Keyword(s):

Life Course ◽

Early Life ◽

Depression And Anxiety ◽

Long Term Effects ◽

The Life Course

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Rural and Urban Dwelling Across the Life-Course and Late-Life Cognitive Ability in Mexico

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.1905 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 574-574

Author(s):

Joseph Saenz

Keyword(s):

Life Course ◽

Cognitive Ability ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Early Life ◽

Healthcare Access ◽

Late Life ◽

Urban Migration ◽

Rural And Urban ◽

And Migration ◽

The Life Course

Abstract BACKGROUND: Research has consistently suggested urban dwelling in late adulthood is associated with better cognitive ability. Whether early life rural/urban dwelling and its interaction with late-life rural/urban dwelling relate with late-life cognitive ability in the context of Mexico is not well understood. METHOD: Data comes from the 2003 Mexican Health and Aging Study. Early life rural/urban was assessed as respondents’ reports of growing up in an urban/rural area. Current rural/urban was assessed by locality size (greater/fewer than 100,000 residents). RESULTS: Both early life and current rural residence were associated with poorer cognitive ability independent of education, literacy, early life SES and health, income/wealth, healthcare access, health, and health behaviors. Compared to individuals who always lived in rural areas, rural to urban migration was associated with better cognitive ability. DISCUSSION: In addition to current rural/urban dwelling, researchers should consider where individuals lived in early life and migration across the life-course.

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Lo sviluppo dell'epidemiologia del life course

SALUTE E SOCIETÀ ◽

10.3280/ses2009-001015 ◽

2009 ◽

pp. 171-189

Author(s):

David Blane ◽

Juliet Stone ◽

Gopal Netuveli

Keyword(s):

Life Course ◽

Birth Cohort ◽

Economic Status ◽

Policy Implications ◽

Life Course Epidemiology ◽

Accumulation Model ◽

Socio Economic Status ◽

Life Course Approach ◽

The Future ◽

The Life Course

- The present paper reviews the development of life course epidemiology since its origins during the 1990s from biological programming, birth cohort research and the study of health inequalities. Methods of studying the life course are examined, including birth cohort studies, linked register datasets and epidemiological archaeology. Three models of life course epidemiology are described: critical periods, accumulation, and pathways. Their conceptual and empirical differentiation can be difficult, but it is argued that accumulation is the underlying social process driving life course trajectories, while the critical period and pathway models are distinguished by their concern with specific types of aetiological process. Among the advantages of the accumulation model are predictive power, aetiological insights, contributions to health inequality debates and social policy implications. It is emphasised that the life course approach is not opposed to, or an alternative to, a concern with cross-sectional and current effects; major social disruption can have a large and immediate impact on health. Other limitations of the life course approach include a spectrum of impact (life course effects can be strong in relation to physiology, but often are weaker in relation to behaviour and psychological reactions to everyday life) and, more speculatively, the possibility that life course effects are diluted in the older age groups where morbidity and mortality are highest. Three issues for the future of life course epidemiology are identified. Many life course data are collected retrospectively. We need to know which items of information are recalled with what degree of accuracy over how many decades; and what methods of collecting these retrospective data maximise accuracy and duration. Second, the two partners in life course research need to take more seriously each other's disciplines. Social scientists need to be more critical of such measures as self-assessed health, which lacks an aetiology and hence biological plausibility. Natural scientists need to be more critical of such concepts as socio-economic status, which lacks social plausibility because it fails to distinguish between social location and social prestige. Finally, European comparative studies can play an important part in the future development of life course epidemiology if they build on the emerging infrastructure of European comparative research. Key words: life course epidemiology, life course trajectories, life course data, social inequalities, accumulation model, socio-economic status. Parole chiave: epidemiologia del corso di vita, traiettorie di vita, dati del corso di vita, disuguaglianze sociali, modello di accumulazione, status socio-economico

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