Are Retrospective Measures of Childhood Socioeconomic Position in Prospective Adult Health Surveys Useful

Abstract

Birth cohort studies have long been accepted as the 'gold standard' for studying a wide-range of exposure-disease associations in individuals across the lifecourse. Two birth cohort studies in New Zealand have shown associations between childhood socioeconomic disadvantage and dental health, physical functioning, mental health and smoking at different time points in the lifecourse. However, these studies are expensive to set up and maintain for long periods and few researchers are fortunate enough to use them. Historical cohorts and record linkage studies are another method used to test early life exposure. But these are usually limited to one or two exposures within a specific time window and have limited or no data on other periods across the lifecourse. Due to the scarcity of lifecourse studies, investigators have taken to examining the role of childhood social conditions in cohorts of middle aged to older persons using adult health surveys and are therefore dependent on retrospective childhood reports. These studies have shown significant but modest associations between experiencing a disadvantaged background and having a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity, common mental disorders, depression, smoking and drinking, poorer self-rated health, physical functioning, and psychosocial functioning, and greater mortality. This paper argues that although retrospective childhood socioeconomic position (SEP) measures have their limitations they provide a useful opportunity to empirically examine theoretical lifecourse models in the absence of complete data across the lifecourse.

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