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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Rachel CooperORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Reducing population levels of frailty is an important goal, and preventing its development in midadulthood could be pivotal. There is limited evidence on associations between childhood socioeconomic position (SEP) and frailty. Using data on the 1958 British birth cohort (followed from 1958 to 2016; n = 8,711), we aimed to 1) establish the utility of measuring frailty in midlife, by examining associations between a 34-item frailty index at age 50 years (FI50y) and mortality at ages 50-58 years, and 2) examine associations between early-life SEP and FI50y and investigate whether these associations were explained by adult SEP. Hazard ratios for mortality increased with increasing frailty; for example, the sex-adjusted hazard ratio for the highest quintile of FI50y versus the lowest was 4.07 (95% confidence interval (CI): 2.64, 6.25). Lower early-life SEP was associated with higher FI50y. Compared with participants born in the highest social class, the estimated total effect on FI50y was 42.0% (95% CI: 35.5, 48.4) for participants born in the lowest class, with the proportion mediated by adult SEP being 0.45% (95% CI: 0.35, 0.55). Mediation by adult SEP was negligible for other early-life SEP classes. Findings suggest that early-life SEP is associated with frailty and that adult SEP only partially explains this association. Results highlight the importance of improving socioeconomic circumstances across the life course to reduce inequalities in midlife frailty.
Author(s): Rogers NT, Blodgett JM, Searle SD, Cooper R, Davis DHJ, Pinto Pereira SM
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: American Journal of Epidemiology
Year: 2021
Volume: 190
Issue: 8
Pages: 1550-1560
Print publication date: 01/08/2021
Online publication date: 17/02/2021
Acceptance date: 10/02/2021
Date deposited: 12/01/2022
ISSN (print): 0002-9262
ISSN (electronic): 1476-6256
Publisher: Oxford University Press
URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwab038
DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwab038
PubMed id: 33595066
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