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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Social inequalities in self reported health in early old age
— follow-up of prospective cohort study | | Author(s) | Tarani Chandola, Jane Ferrie, Amanda Sacker |
| Journal title | British Medical Journal, vol 334 no 7601, 12 May 2007 |
| Pages | pp 990-993 |
| Source | http://www.bmj.com |
| Keywords | Health [elderly] ; Economic status [elderly] ; Young elderly ; Civil servants ; Longitudinal surveys. |
| Annotation | Social inequalities in self-reported health increase in early old age. This article reports on part of the Whitehall study of British civil servants (1985-2004. 10308 men and women aged 35-55 at baseline employed in 20 government departments in London were followed up after an average 18 years. Physical component and mental component scores on SR-36 were measured on five occasions. Physical health deteriorated more rapidly with age among men and women from the lower occupational grades. The average gap in physical component scores between a high and low grade civil servant at age 56 was 1.60; this gap increased by 1 over 20 years. The average physical health of a 70 year old man or woman who was in a high grade position was similar to the physical health of a person from a low grade around eight years younger. In mid-life, this gap was only 4.5 years. Although mental health improved with age, the rate of improvement is slower for men and women in the lower grades. Thus, people from lower occupational grades age faster in terms of a quicker deterioration in physical health compared with people from higher grades. This widening gap suggests that health inequalities will become an increasingly important public health issue, especially as the population ages. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-070514227 A |
| Classmark | CC: F:W: BBA: XM8: 3J * |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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