Abstract
Objectives: Drawing on UK Household Longitudinal Study data, this study assessed a pathway from early-life disadvantage to suboptimal later-life health via health behavior. Methods: Latent class analysis was used to identify distinct smoking, nutrition, alcohol, and physical activity health behavior profiles. Mediation analyses were performed to assess indirect effects of early-life disadvantage via health behavior on allostatic load, an objective measure of physiological wear and tear. Results: Four health behavior profiles were identified: (1) broadly healthy and high alcohol consumption, (2) low smoking and alcohol consumption, healthy nutrition, and physically inactive, (3) broadly unhealthy and low alcohol consumption, and (4) broadly moderately unhealthy and high alcohol consumption. Having grown up in a higher socioeconomic position family was associated with lower later-life allostatic load. This was partly attributable to health behavioral differences. Discussion: Growing up under disadvantageous socioeconomic circumstances may initiate a chain of risk by predisposing people to health behavior profiles associated with poorer later-life health.
Highlights
Poor childhood conditions can be seen as “the launch pad for a lifetime of health problems” (Raphael, 2011, p. 24)
Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to distinguish particular health behavior profiles that vary on multiple behavioral dimensions–smoking, nutrition, alcohol consumption, and physical activity (SNAP) – among people aged 50–80 years in Great Britain
Multinomial logistic regression analyses shed light on how disadvantageous early-life circumstances are associated with having particular health behavior profiles
Summary
Poor childhood conditions can be seen as “the launch pad for a lifetime of health problems” (Raphael, 2011, p. 24). Research consistently shows that growing up under disadvantageous circumstances, such as in poor financial conditions or not living with both parents, is associated with poor later-life health (Gilman et al, 2003; Gruenewald et al, 2012; Kumari et al, 2013; Latham-Mintus & Aman, 2019; Pakpahan et al, 2017). Such experiences may have an immediate impact on the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems that remains apparent in adulthood and later life (Danese & McEwen, 2012). Divorce and early transitions to parenthood are both, in turn, known antecedents of poor later-life health (Grundy & Read, 2015; Lorenz et al, 2006; Rote, 2017; Sironi et al, 2020)
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