Childhood Socioeconomic Environment Research Articles

How does childhood socio-economic environment affect the health of middle-aged and elderly people in China? A new perspective with four dimensions of health

How does childhood socio-economic environment affect the health of middle-aged and elderly people in China? A new perspective with four dimensions of health

Influence of Educational Background, Childhood Socioeconomic Environment, and Language Use on Cognition among Spanish-Speaking Latinos Living Near the US-Mexico Border.

We investigated the impact of culturally relevant social, educational, and language factors on cognitive test performance among Spanish speakers living near the US-Mexico border. Participants included 254 healthy native Spanish speakers from the Neuropsychological Norms for the US-Mexico Border Region in Spanish (NP-NUMBRS) project (Age: M = 37.3, SD = 10.4; Education: M = 10.7, SD = 4.3; 59% Female). A comprehensive neuropsychological battery was administered in Spanish. Individual test scaled scores and T-scores (based on region-specific norms adjusted for age, education, and sex) were averaged to create Global Mean Scaled and T-scores. Measures of culturally relevant factors included a self-reported indicator of educational quality/access (proportion of education in Spanish-speaking country, quality of school/classroom setting, stopped attending school to work), childhood socioeconomic environment (parental education, proportion of time living in Spanish-speaking country, childhood socioeconomic and health status, access to basic resources, work as a child), and Spanish/English language use and fluency. Several culturally relevant variables were significantly associated with unadjusted Global Scaled Scores in univariable analyses. When using demographically adjusted T-scores, fewer culturally relevant characteristics were significant. In multivariable analyses, being bilingual (p = .04) and working as a child for one's own benefit compared to not working as a child (p = .006) were significantly associated with higher Global Mean T-score, accounting for 9% of variance. Demographically adjusted normative data provide a useful tool for the identification of brain dysfunction, as these account for much of the variance of sociocultural factors on cognitive test performance. Yet, certain culturally relevant variables still contributed to cognitive test performance above and beyond basic demographics, warranting further investigation.

Abstract MP65: Occupational Complexity and Childhood Socioeconomic Environment Influence Mid-to-Late-Life 20-year Change in Cognitive Function; The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (aric) Study

Background: We tested the hypothesis that lower childhood SES is associated with greater age-and disease-related cognitive decline. We further examined potential protective effects of high adulthood occupational complexity in the association of childhood SES with cognitive decline. Methods: Childhood neighborhood SES (child nSES) was ascertained at midlife among 12440 ARIC participants using retrospective historical county-level census-based measures of median household income, value of owner occupied housing units, percent of households receiving interest, dividend, or net rental income, educational attainment, and proportion of adults in professional, management, or executive occupations. An occupational complexity index (OCI) was derived from self-reported occupational categories at baseline. Cognitive function was assessed at ARIC visits 2 (1990-1993), 4 (1996-1998), and 5 (2011-2013) according to performance on tests of memory, executive function/processing speed and language. A composite global cognition z-score was estimated, with missing data imputed using multiple imputation by chained equations. Linear mixed effects models, adjusted for baseline age, sex, and race-study center, were used to examine the association of distribution-based tertiles of the child nSES summary score with baseline and 20-year change in cognitive function. We further examined interactions by OCI tertiles. Results: Global cognitive z scores in adulthood were persistently higher at baseline among participants with high (Visit 2 β =0.545 (95% CI 0.514, 0.576) as compared to intermediate (Visit 2 β=0.348 (95% CI 0.317, 0.381)) and low (Visit 2 β = 0.007 (95% CI -0.030, 0.044) child nSES. Participants with high,as compared to low, OCI, had higher baseline cognitive function across all tertiles of child nSES (Figure, p<0.01). Conclusion: The positive association of child nSES with adult cognitive function is modified by adulthood occupational complexity. Child nSES is not associated with a 20-year cognitive change.

Early Life Development in a Multiethnic Sample and the Relation to Late Life Cognition

Poor quality of early life conditions has been associated with poorer late life cognition and increased risk of dementia. Early life physical development can be captured using adult measures of height and head circumference. Availability of resources may be reflected by socioeconomic indicators, such as parental education and family size. We sought to determine the association between early life development and experience and late life semantic memory, episodic memory, and executive functioning abilities, as well as rate of cognitive decline. This study was conducted using the UC Davis Aging Diversity cohort, an ethnically diverse sample of Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic individuals from northern California. We used latent variable modeling to measure growth and childhood socioeconomic environment (SES) and examine their associations with longitudinal cognitive outcomes using mixed effects modeling. Growth was positively related to higher childhood SES. Higher childhood SES was associated with better semantic memory. Both low growth and low SES were associated with increased rate of cognitive decline. These findings demonstrate that early life experiences influence the trajectory of cognitive aging. Early life development and experience appears to provide a distal basis upon which additional risk and protective factors interact in the development of dementia.

Association Between Birthweight and Cognitive Function in Middle Age: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study

We aimed to examine the relationship of birthweight to cognitive performance in middle aged participants of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (ARIC). Cognitive function, assessed by means of three neuropsychological tests-the Delayed WordRecall Test (DWR), the Digit Symbol Subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (DSS/WAIS-R), and the Word Fluency (WF) Test, was evaluated in relation to birthweight, as recalled through standardized interviews, by the use of data from the second and fourth follow-up visits of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study cohort (1990-1992 and 1996-1998, respectively). Overall, 6785 participants satisfied the inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis. After adjusting for adult sociodemographic factors, childhood socioeconomic environment and parental risk factors, and adult anthropometric, health status-related. and behavioral variables, we observed linear trends for the relationship of birthweight to WF scores, although the trend was statistically significant only for those reporting exact birthweights (p for trend = .004). For the other cognitive test results, results were either null or inconsistent with the a priori hypotheses. Except for WF in those reporting exact birthweights, our study does not support the notion that birthweight influences cognitive function in adults.

Changing patterns of Hodgkin lymphoma incidence in Singapore

A bimodal age-specific incidence pattern with a relatively high proportion of cases occurring in adolescents and young adults is a hallmark of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) epidemiology in Western industrialized countries. The young adult incidence peak is believed to reflect the association between HL risk in young adults and an affluent childhood socioeconomic environment. However, the dynamic development of the young adult incidence peak following socioeconomic development implied by this interpretation has scarcely been demonstrated in a single population over time. We, therefore, analyzed incidence patterns of HL in Singapore between 1968 and 2004, during which time period a socioeconomic transition towards Western World lifestyles took place. As hypothesized a HL incidence peak emerged among adolescents and young adults in Singapore. Thus, in the age groups 15-19 and 20-24 years incidence rates increased annually by 7.0% (95% confidence interval 3.4%-10.7%) and 3.4% (0.1%-6.8%), respectively, in men and by 13.7% (9.1%-18.6%) and 12.2% (7.8-16.8%), respectively, in women between 1968 and 2004. However, the incidence peak remained considerably lower than what can be observed in young adults in the Western World. It remains to be determined to what extent the current lower incidence of HL in young Asian adults should be attributed to birth cohort phenomena, as would be suggested by continued increase in incidence, and to ethnic variation in HL susceptibility between Asian and non-Asian populations, respectively.

Childhood Socioeconomic Status Predicts Physical Functioning a Half Century Later

Socioeconomic status (SES) affects health outcomes at all stages of life. Relating childhood socioeconomic environment to midlife functional status provides a life course perspective on childhood factors associated with poor and good health status later in life. The British 1946 birth cohort was prospectively evaluated with periodic examinations from birth through age 53 years, when physical performance tests assessing strength, balance, and rising from a chair were administered. Early childhood socioeconomic factors were examined as predictors of low, middle, or high function at midlife. We tested the hypothesis that adulthood behavioral risk factors would explain the childhood SES-midlife physical function associations. Multiple measures of childhood deprivation were associated with midlife function but in multivariate analyses only father's occupation was associated with low function (relative risk [RR] for manual occupation = 1.6; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1-2.3), and only mother's education was associated with high function (RR for lower mother's education = 0.49; 95% CI, 0.34-0.72). Early adulthood behavioral risk factors and middle-age SES and disease status only modestly attenuated the relationship between father's occupation and low function and had no impact on the relationship of mother's education with high function. The social environment in which a child grows up has a strong association with midlife, objectively measured functional status, which is a reflection of the aging process and chronic diseases accumulated over the life course. Of particular interest is the role of higher maternal education in promoting high midlife functioning.

A simultaneous analysis of neighbourhood and childhood socio-economic environment with self-assessed health and health-related behaviours

Childhood socio-economic environment and neighbourhood socio-economic environment later in life are closely related. However, few studies have considered their effects simultaneously. Using cross-sectional data of approximately 8000 respondents in 86 neighbourhoods in the city of Eindhoven, the Netherlands, we study associations of both determinants with self-assessed health, smoking, alcohol consumption and overweight. Growing up in a low socio-economic environment increased the probability to live a more deprived neighbourhood in adulthood. Controlling for individual socio-economic characteristics, both childhood and neighbourhood socio-economic environment were related to smoking and overweight, but not with excessive alcohol consumption. Associations between childhood socio-economic environment and smoking and overweight are still substantial after controlling for neighbourhood socio-economic environment. Similarly, neighbourhood inequalities in smoking and overweight remain substantial after controlling for childhood socio-economic environment.

Multiple Dimensions of Socioeconomic Position and Obesity among Employees: The Helsinki Health Study

To examine socioeconomic differences in obesity using several different socioeconomic indicators, ranging from childhood socioeconomic environment and adult socioeconomic status to material resources and economic satisfaction. The data derived from the Helsinki Health Study baseline surveys in 2000 and 2001. Respondents to postal surveys were middle-aged employees of the City of Helsinki (4,975 women and 1,252 men, response rate 68%). Associations between eight socioeconomic indicators and obesity (BMI > or = 30 kg/m(2)), calculated from self-reported data, were examined by fitting a series of logistic regression models. In women, all socioeconomic indicators except household income and economic satisfaction were associated with obesity. Parental education and childhood economic difficulties, i.e., socioeconomic conditions in childhood, remained associated with obesity after adjusting for all indicators of current socioeconomic position. Indicators of adult socioeconomic status, own education and occupational class, were no longer associated with obesity when childhood socioeconomic conditions were adjusted for. Home ownership and economic difficulties were associated with obesity after full adjustments. In men, the findings paralleled those among women, but few associations reached statistical significance. Obesity was associated with several dimensions of socioeconomic position. Childhood socioeconomic disadvantage was associated with obesity independently of the various indicators of current socioeconomic position. Associations between obesity and both educational level and occupational class disappeared after adjustment for other indicators of socioeconomic position. This suggests that the variation observed in the prevalence of obesity by these key socioeconomic indicators may reflect differences in the related material resources.

The irritable bowel syndrome has origins in the childhood socioeconomic environment.

The childhood socioeconomic environment has been linked to adult health status in several studies. However, its role in the pathogenesis of adult irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) remains unknown. We aim to assess the influence of the childhood environment on adult IBS, using data from a New Zealand birth cohort study. The Dunedin birth cohort was assembled in 1972-1973 and has been followed prospectively to age 26 (n = 980). IBS was classified according to both Rome and Manning criteria, using self-reported symptom data obtained at age 26 yr. Childhood social class was used as a proxy measure of the quality of the childhood socioeconomic environment and was assigned according to the highest average socioeconomic (SES) level of either parent from interviews across the first 15 yr of life. Childhood social class was significantly associated with IBS according to Manning Criteria (p = 0.05) and Rome II Criteria (p = 0.05). The prevailing trend was identical for both measures of IBS in the sex-adjusted models: this trend can be characterized as a general, and near-linear decrease in the odds of IBS across decreasing levels of social class. Contrasts with the reference group were significant on all comparisons for Manning Criteria IBS (high vs upper middle, p = 0.04; lower middle, p = 0.04; low, p = 0.01), and on comparisons involving the two lower social class groups for Rome II Criteria IBS (high vs lower middle, p = 0.03; low, p = 0.03). The associations were attenuated, but not eliminated by further adjustment for adult social class. An affluent childhood environment is an independent risk factor for adult IBS.

Birthweight, childhood social class, and change in adult blood pressure in the 1946 British birth cohort

The negative effect of birthweight on systolic blood pressure has been suggested to be initiated in utero and amplified with age. We aimed to investigate this hypothesis. A sample of 3634 people from a birth cohort study of men and women born in Britain in 1946 were included in analyses. Cohort members have been contacted regularly since birth, and systolic and diastolic blood pressures were measured at ages 36, 43, and 53 years. Multilevel models, with blood pressure as a repeated outcome, were used to test the amplification hypothesis and to compare results for birthweight with those for childhood social class. Considering both men and women together, a consistent negative association between birthweight and systolic blood pressure was noted from age 36 to 53 years, but no evidence was recorded of substantial amplification with age. A 1 kg higher birthweight was associated with a slower mean increase in systolic blood pressure by -0.4 mm Hg (95% CI -1.3 to 0.4; p=0.3) per 10-year increase in age. Birthweight was not associated with diastolic blood pressure at any age. People from a manual social class in childhood had higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure than did those from a non-manual class. The effect on systolic blood pressure rose with age, by 1.0 mm Hg (95% CI 0.1 to 2.0; p=0.03) per 10 years, but was largely accounted for by current body-mass index, which was an increasingly strong determinant of blood pressure. These findings suggest that weight control throughout life is key to prevention of raised blood pressure during middle age. Understanding the link between the early childhood socioeconomic environment and adult obesity could make this strategy more effective.

Birth weight, childhood socioeconomic environment, and cognitive development in the 1958 British birth cohort study

abstractObjectives: To examine the combined effect of social class and weight at birth on cognitive trajectories during school age and the associations between birth weight and educational outcomes through to...