Housing conditions in childhood and cause-specific adult mortality: The effect of sanitary conditions and economic deprivation on 55,761 men in Oslo

Abstract

To examine indices of two plausible pathways linking housing conditions in childhood and adult cause-specific mortality: sanitary conditions and economic deprivation. To investigate if the effects of these are explained by education. Linked register study (housing information from the 1960 Census, the educational register in 1990 and the death register 1990-998). A Sanitary Conditions Index (SCI) and an Economic Deprivation Index (EDI) were constructed from the housing conditions variables. All men aged 30-54 years (n = 55,761) who were residents in Oslo on 1 January 1990 with complete information on housing conditions (80%). Both SCI and EDI were related to all-cause mortality independently of each other. Education explained to a large extent these effects. In a sub-sample, 24% of the effects could be explained by parental education and 31% by own education. The effects found for causes of death failed to give a heterogeneous pattern between the two indices. In the fully adjusted model psychiatric causes of death appeared to be more related to EDI than SCI. The two indices of childhood social circumstances, sanitary conditions and economic deprivation, appeared to be independently associated with all-cause mortality. The effect of both could to a large extent be explained by parental and own education.