Associations of successful aging with socioeconomic position across the life-course: the West of Scotland Twenty-07 prospective cohort study

Publication type

Journal Article

Authors

Publication date

January 15, 2018

Summary:

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate how socioeconomic position (SEP) is associated with multidimensional measures of successful aging (SA), and how this varies and accumulates across the life-course. Method: Using data from 1,733 Scottish men and women from two cohorts aged around 57 and 76, respectively, we explored associations of SA, based on the Rowe–Kahn model, with 10 measures of SEP measured in childhood and, distally and proximally, in adulthood. Results: Individual SEP associations with SA score were generally consistent across different indicators and life stages: Respondents with the most versus least favorable SEP had two additional positive SA dimensions. There was also a strong association between SA and cumulative SEP based on all 10 measures combined; respondents with the most versus least favorable lifelong SEP had four additional positive SA dimensions. Conclusion: SEP advantages/disadvantages act and accumulate across the life-course, resulting in widening socioeconomic inequalities in SA in later life.

Published in

Journal of Aging and Health

Volume and page numbers

Volume: 30 , p.52 -74

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0898264316665208

ISSN

8982643

Subjects

Notes

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Open Access

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