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Does childhood health affect chronic morbidity in later life?
- Source :
-
Social science & medicine (1982) [Soc Sci Med] 2001 Apr; Vol. 52 (8), pp. 1269-84. - Publication Year :
- 2001
-
Abstract
- Our analysis examines whether childhood health has long-term and enduring consequences for chronic morbidity. As a part of this analysis, we address two methodological issues of concern in the literature. Is adult height a surrogate for childhood health experiences in modeling chronic disease in later life? And, are the effects of adult socioeconomic status on chronic disease overestimated when childhood health is not accounted for? The analysis is based on a topical module to the third wave of the Health and Retirement Study, a representative survey of Americans aged 55-65 in 1996. Our results support the hypothesis that poor childhood health increases morbidity in later life. This association was found for cancer, lung disease, cardiovascular conditions, and arthritis/rheumatism. The associations were highly persistent in the face of statistical controls for both adult and childhood socioeconomic status. No support was found for using adult height as a proxy for the effects of childhood health experiences. Further, the effects of adult socioeconomic status were not overestimated when childhood health was excluded from the explanatory models. Our results point to the importance of an integrated health care policy based on the premise of maximizing health over the entire life cycle.
- Subjects :
- Age Factors
Autoimmune Diseases complications
Body Height physiology
Child
Communicable Diseases complications
Cultural Deprivation
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Prevalence
Retirement
Risk Factors
Socioeconomic Factors
United States epidemiology
Child Welfare statistics & numerical data
Chronic Disease epidemiology
Morbidity
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 0277-9536
- Volume :
- 52
- Issue :
- 8
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Social science & medicine (1982)
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 11281409
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/s0277-9536(00)00230-6