Socioeconomic inequalities in ageing and health (original) (raw)
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American Journal of Public Health, 2001
This study examined (1) the relation of employment grade in middle age to self-reported poor health and functional limitations in old age and (2) whether socioeconomic status at approximately the time of retirement modifies health differentials in old age. Survivors of the Whitehall Study cohort of men were resurveyed. Respondents were aged 40 to 69 years when they were originally screened in 1967 to 1970. Compared with senior administrators, men in clerical or manual (low-grade) jobs in middle age had quadruple the odds of poor physical performance in old age, triple the odds of poor general health, and double the odds of poor mental health and disability. At most, 20% of these differences were explained by baseline health or risk factors. Men who moved from low to middle grades before retirement were less likely than those who remained in low grades to have poor mental health. Socioeconomic status in middle age and at approximately retirement age is associated with morbidity in old age.
Biological ageing: A fundamental, biological link between socio-economic status and health?
The European Journal of Public Health, 2004
Socio-economic differences in health appear to be universal but the precise pathways that link socio-economic status and health remain unclear. Differential exposure to specific risk and protective factors are often cited as, at least, partial explanations of socio-economic differences in health. However, risk factors are culturally specific and risk factor-specific models of socioeconomic differences in health may be inadequate: as soon as prevailing risk factors change, so too must associated explanations of socio-economic differences in health. An alternative, risk factor-independent, model of socio-economic differences in health proposes that fundamental pathways to health and disease exist and that risk and protective factors act by feeding into these pathways. We propose that biological ageing is one such fundamental pathway to health, disease and, thus, socio-economic differences in health. Biological ageing is the progressive decline in physiological ability to meet demands, that occurs over time. It is due to the accumulation of damage at the cellular level and the rate of biological ageing is determined by both environmental and genetic factors. There is increasing evidence that many known disease risk and protective factors influence the rate of cellular damage accumulation and hence biological ageing and that the pathogenesis of some important diseases is related to biological ageing. We discuss these issues and hypothesize that socio-economic differences in health are partly a result of poor people ageing faster than rich people due to the unhealthy environments to which they are exposed.
study early old age: follow-up of prospective cohort Social inequalities in self reported health in
2007
Objective To describe differences in trajectories of self reported health in an ageing cohort according to occupational grade. Design Prospective cohort study of office based British civil servants (1985-2004). Participants 10 308 men and women aged 35-55 at baseline, employed in 20 London civil service departments (the Whitehall II study); follow-up was an average of 18 years. Main outcome measures Physical component and mental component scores on SR-36 measured on five occasions. Results Physical health deteriorated more rapidly with age among men and women from the lower occupational grades. The average gap in physical component scores between a high and low grade civil servant at age 56 was 1.60 and this gap increased by 1 over 20 years. The average physical health of a 70 year old man or woman who was in a high grade position was similar to the physical health of a person from a low grade around eight years younger. In mid-life, this gap was only 4.5 years. Although mental health improved with age, the rate of improvement is slower for men and women in the lower grades. Conclusions Social inequalities in self reported health increase in early old age. People from lower occupational grades age faster in terms of a quicker deterioration in physical health compared with people from higher grades. This widening gap suggests that health inequalities will become an increasingly important public health issue, especially as the population ages.
Changes in Health Between Ages 54 and 65
Research on Aging, 2008
The authors model the relationships between socioeconomic status (SES), working conditions, and changes between ages 54 and 65 in three very different health outcomes. To what extent is SES associated with changes in health net of the working conditions? At the same time, to what extent are working conditions associated with health net of SES? To address these questions the authors use unique data from a single cohort of women and men to model changes in health between ages 54 and 65. Although results vary across outcomes, there are some circumstances in which associations between SES and changes in health are attributable to working conditions, and there are other circumstances in which associations between working conditions and changes in health are attributable to SES. The largely disconnected literatures on health disparities (in the social sciences and public health) and job design (in occupational stress and ergonomics) could and should be fruitfully integrated.
Health and socio-economic status over the life course
De Gruyter eBooks, 2019
is hidden behind the 'obvious'? SHARE data raise the curtain about health, early retirement and elderly care of ageing Bulgarians 179 Loretti I. Dobrescu and Alin Marius Andrieș 19 The link to the past and the post-communist welfare state 187 Antigone Lyberaki, Platon Tinios, George Papadoudis and Thomas Georgiadis 20 The economic crisis, fiscal austerity and long-term care: Responses of the care mix in three adjustment countries 197
8. Mortality and healthy life expectancy
Living in the 21st century: older people …, 2008
… type of pension, … • Men, but not women, who are members of defined benefit pension schemes are more likely than those who are members of defined contribution pension schemes to leave full-time work, other things being equal.
Social science & …, 2004
Previous research has suggested that socio-economic status (SES) differences in mortality are only partially explained by differences in life-style, psychological and social factors. Seven year mortality data (1988)(1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995) from the MacArthur Study of Successful Aging, a longitudinal study of adults, aged 70-79, from New Haven, CT; East Boston, MA; and Durham, NC; were used to test the hypothesis that a cumulative measure of biological dysregulation (''allostatic load''), reflecting multiple regulatory systems, would serve as a further mediator of SES differences in mortality. Logistic regression analyses revealed that a cumulative index of biological risk explained 35.4% of the difference in mortality risk between those with higher versus lower SES (as measured by less than high school education versus high school or greater educational attainment). Importantly, the cumulative index provided independent explanatory power, over and above a measure of doctor-diagnosed disease, though the latter also contributed to education-related variation in mortality risks. The summary measure of biological risk also accounted for more variance than individual biological parameters, suggesting the potential value of a multi-systems view of biological pathways through which SES ultimately affects morbidity and mortality. r