Association between childhood conditions and arthritis among middle-aged and older adults in China: the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study

This study examined the association between childhood conditions and arthritis among middle-aged and older adults in China. The data were derived from the 2015 wave and the life-history module of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with respondents age 45 and over across China. Multiple imputation was used to handle the missing data, generating a final analytic sample of 19,800. Doctor-diagnosed arthritis was the main outcome variable. Random-effects logistic regression models were used to test the proposed models. Approximately 8 per cent of the respondents had better family financial status in childhood than their neighbours. Close to 8 per cent had been hospitalised or encountered similar conditions (e.g. confined to bed or home) for at least one month in childhood. Around one-third reported better subjective health in childhood than their peers. The majority of the respondents (80%) reported that they had stable health resources, and that their mothers were illiterate during their childhood. Childhood family financial status, subjective health, mother's education, access to health care and medical catastrophic events were found to be significant factors associated with arthritis in later life, after controlling for adulthood and older-age conditions (family financial status: odds ratio (OR) = 0.885, 95 per cent confidence interval (95% CI) = 0.848–0.924; subjective health: OR = 0.924, 95% CI = 0.889–0.960; mother's education: OR = 0.863, 95% CI = 0.750–0.992; access to health care: OR = 0.729, 95% CI = 0.552–0.964; medical catastrophic events: OR = 1.266, 95% CI = 1.108–1.446). The study results highlight an important role that childhood conditions play in affecting the onset of arthritis in late life in China. Health-care providers may consider childhood conditions as a valuable screening criterion to identify risk populations, which could be used to guide health promotion and prevention programmes, and promote healthy ageing.

A study on the lifestyle of school-aged children in Pärnu City and County

In 2013/2014, a study on students’ health behaviour was conducted in Estonia. In 2016, a school-aged children’s lifestyle study was carried out in Pärnu City and Pärnu County. The survey explored the students’ relations with their family and friends, family affluence, physical activity, use of alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis. 2,512 respondents participated in the study, 48% of them were boys and 52% girls. The respondents mainly had a family with two biological parents and their family financial status was mostly “good”. About half of the respondents played computer games 0.5–3 hours a day, but those who were physically active spent less hours behind the computer and had higher family financial status. Respondents who were not physically very active met friends less frequently. In communication with friends, they used more social media. The questionnaire included several questions about risk behaviours. If the respondent had one bad habit, this was likely to lead to other bad habits, too.