Abstract
This is the first review of the evidence, based on longitudinal studies in the United Kingdom, on the association of ill health at any life stage and later social and economic outcomes. The review included a wide range of physical and mental health exposures, both self-reported and objectively measured, as well as social (e.g. life satisfaction) and economic (e.g. employment) outcomes. We searched the Web of Science, key longitudinal datasets based in the UK, major economic journals, Google Scholar and reference lists of relevant publications. The review includes 80 studies. There was strong evidence for the association between early mental health, mainly attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and lifetime educational, occupational and various social outcomes. Also, both poor physical and mental health in early and middle adulthood, tended to be associated with unemployment and lower socioeconomic status. Among older adults, the evidence quite consistently indicated an association between mental health, chronic conditions, disability/functional limitations, self-rated general health and quality of life, life satisfaction and early retirement. Overall, mental health was consistently found to be associated with a range of social and economic outcomes throughout the lifespan. The evidence for the association between physical health and later outcomes is more inconsistent. A number of methodological challenges need to be addressed, particularly related to causal inference, to produce robust evidence with potential to inform public health policy.
Highlights
The worldwide economic costs of non-communicable diseases were estimated to be $47 trillion between 2011 and 2030.[1]
We found studies by examining the references and citations made within other studies included in the review and we searched Google Scholar using the key words for each outcome included in the main search (S1 Table) in combination with broad terms related to health
We present the main findings for three life stages at which ill health occurred
Summary
The worldwide economic costs of non-communicable diseases were estimated to be $47 trillion between 2011 and 2030.[1]. There have been few attempts to review comprehensively the evidence of the association between health and socioeconomic outcomes, none of which was conducted in the United Kingdom Four of those reviews focused exclusively on the link between childhood health and later socioeconomic outcomes (mainly educational attainment and employmentrelated outcomes), all finding strong evidence for the association.[3, 4, 6, 7] Another review found supportive evidence for the association between poor self-rated health, mental health as well as chronic diseases and exit from paid employment through disability pension, unemployment and early retirement.[8] Due to a rapidly growing body of evidence, an updated comprehensive review is needed, which would investigate the association between poor health occurring throughout the lifespan and a wider range of economic and social outcomes
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