PHA-Exch> Is the association between childhood socioeconomic circumstances and cause-specific mortality established?

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Ruggiero, Mrs. Ana Lucia (WDC) <ruglucia at paho.org>
crossposted from: EQUIDAD at listserv.paho.org

 *Is the association between childhood socioeconomic circumstances and
cause-specific mortality established?
Update of a systematic review*

*
*B Galobardes1, J W Lynch2, G Davey Smith1

1 Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, UK
2 Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, McGill
University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

*Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health** - May 2008 - Volume 62,
Number 5*

*Website: http://jech.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/62/5/387 *

*Objective:* To update a systematic review on the association between
childhood socioeconomic circumstances and cause-specific mortality.
Studies published
since 2003 include a far greater number of deaths than was previously
available justifying an update of the previous systematic review.

*Methods:* Individual-level studies examining childhood socioeconomic
circumstances and adult overall and cause-specific mortality published
between 2003 and April 2007.

*Results and conclusions:* The new studies confirmed that mortality risk for
all causes was higher among those who experienced poorer socioeconomic
circumstances
during childhood. As already suggested in the original systematic review,
not all causes of death were equally related to childhood socioeconomic
circumstances. A greater proportion of new studies included women and showed
that a similar pattern is valid for both genders. In addition, the new
studies show that this association persists among younger birth
cohorts, despite
temporal general improvements in childhood conditions across successive
birth cohorts. The difficulties of establishing a particular life-course
model were highlighted

*What this paper adds*

        - The association between childhood socioeconomic circumstances and
cause-specific mortality is present in men and women.
        - This association persists in younger cohorts despite them not
having been exposed to the same sort of childhood hardships as previous
cohorts
        - Education is an important mediator between early life
socioeconomic position and adult mortality

 *Policy implications
*
This systematic review provides strong evidence that poor socioeconomic
circumstances during childhood are associated with higher mortality among
men and women and that this association persists among younger cohorts.
Tackling health inequalities from the start of life needs to be a
policy priority
if we are to reduce adult health inequalities.

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