Abstract
This study examines the association between childhood socioeconomic position and objective physical capability including new functional measures of potential relevance to a population in late-middle age. The study population covers two Danish birth cohorts followed-up in the Copenhagen Aging and Midlife Biobank (age 48–58 years, 2009–2011, N = 4,204). Results from linear regression models revealed that being born in higher socioeconomic position was associated with higher jump height: Paternal occupational class four = 0.19 cm (95% confidence interval (CI): -0.44, 0.82), three = 0.59 cm (95% CI: -0.02, 1.19), two = 1.29 cm (95% CI: 0.64, 1.94), and one = 1.29 cm (95% CI: 0.45, 2.13) (reference = five); medium parental social class = 0.88 cm (95% CI: 0.03, 1.72) and high = 1.79 cm (95% CI: 0.94, 2.63) (reference = low). Higher childhood socioeconomic position was also associated with better chair rise performance and hand grip strength, while among women it was related to reduced flexibility: Medium parental social class = -1.31 cm (95% CI: -3.05, 0.42) and high = -2.20 cm (95% CI: -3.94, -0.47) (reference = low); unwed mother = 1.75 cm (95% CI: 0.36, 3.14) (reference = married). Overall, the findings suggest that higher childhood socioeconomic position is primarily related to moderately better scores in the most strenuous physical capability measures and hand grip strength among healthy adults in late-middle age.
Highlights
Literature suggests that the well-established social gradient in physical capability partly originates in early life [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]
In the Metropolit Cohort (MC), participants were most often born to a father of occupational class two-five, and in the Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort (CPC), the majority belonged to the low social class in childhood
Likewise, being born to an unwed mother was associated with poorer jump height (crude: -1.52 cm, adjusted for birth cohort -0.54 cm)
Summary
Literature suggests that the well-established social gradient in physical capability partly originates in early life [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. Childhood SEP could be of particular importance because of its impact on the physiologic reserve from which age-related decline begins [14]. People who achieve higher peak levels of physical capability in early adulthood will experience functional disability at a later stage than those who were weaker at their best conditioning on the same rate of age-related decline in physical capability (paths A and B, Fig 1). A strong physiological reserve could delay or even prevent severe functional disability in aging individuals experiencing accelerated decline (paths C and D, Fig 1). The chair rise performance test requires the participant to be able to lift his/her own body weight several times at a brisk pace, which is considered quite physically demanding. Previous tests are mostly focused on the extremities ignoring the central part of the body (i.e. back and abdomen), which may be of importance to activities of daily living
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