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Childhood living conditions, education and health among the oldest old in Sweden

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2015

HANNA BERNDT  and
STEFAN FORS
HANNA BERNDT*
Affiliation:
Aging Research Center, Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University, Sweden. Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Gothenburg University, Sweden.
STEFAN FORS
Affiliation:
Aging Research Center, Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University, Sweden.
*
Address for correspondence: Hanna Berndt, Aging Research Center, Gävlegatan 16, SE-11330 Stockholm, Sweden E-mail: hanna.berndt@ki.se
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Abstract

The objectives were to investigate the associations between social and financial living conditions in childhood, education and morbidity in old age. The study population (N = 591; 76+ years old) was assembled from two nationally representative Swedish surveys, in 1968 and 2011, that together made longitudinal analysis possible. Morbidity in old age comprised self-reported measures of musculoskeletal disorders, cardiovascular disease, self-rated health and impaired mobility. There were no independent associations between adverse childhood living conditions and morbidity. However, adverse childhood living conditions were associated with an increased likelihood of low education. Moreover, low education was associated with a higher probability of health problems in old age. The results did not show any associations between adverse childhood conditions and late-life morbidity. However, adverse childhood conditions were associated with lower levels of education which, in turn, was associated with health problems and attrition from the study. These results suggest that adverse childhood conditions may indeed be associated with health and survival in old age, but mainly through mechanisms acting earlier in the lifecourse.

Keywords

childhood living conditionslifecourseeducationold agemorbidityhealth
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , March 2016 , pp. 631 - 648
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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