Childhood neighborhoods and cause-specific adult mortality in Sweden 1939-2015
Hedefalk, Finn LU
; van Dijk, Ingrid Kirsten
LU
and Dribe, Martin
LU
(2022)
p.1-15
- Abstract
- The socioeconomic health gradient has widened since the mid-21st century, but the role of childhood neighborhoods remains underexplored. Most neighborhood studies on health are cross-sectional, and longitudinal research is lacking.
We analyze how socioeconomic neighborhood conditions in childhood influence cause-specific deaths in adulthood. We use uniquely detailed geocoded longitudinal microdata for the Swedish town of Landskrona, 1939-1967, linked to Swedish national registers, 1968-2015. We measure neighborhood SES by social class and use dynamic sizes of individual neighborhoods. Cox proportional hazards models are employed to estimate the impact of neighbor’s social class in childhood (ages 1-17) on mortality in ages 40-69.... (More) - The socioeconomic health gradient has widened since the mid-21st century, but the role of childhood neighborhoods remains underexplored. Most neighborhood studies on health are cross-sectional, and longitudinal research is lacking.
We analyze how socioeconomic neighborhood conditions in childhood influence cause-specific deaths in adulthood. We use uniquely detailed geocoded longitudinal microdata for the Swedish town of Landskrona, 1939-1967, linked to Swedish national registers, 1968-2015. We measure neighborhood SES by social class and use dynamic sizes of individual neighborhoods. Cox proportional hazards models are employed to estimate the impact of neighbor’s social class in childhood (ages 1-17) on mortality in ages 40-69. We control for class origin, class in adulthood, schools, and physical neighborhood characteristics.
The class of the nearby, same-age, childhood neighbors had a lasting effect on male all-cause and preventable, but not non-preventable, mortality. Men who grew up with having 10% more children from white-collar families as close-proximity neighbors had an 8% lower mortality risk due to preventable causes of death in adulthood. The mortality for women was not affected by their childhood neighbors, although both a lower adult class and class origin increased their mortality.
Because preventable causes of death are linked to lifestyle factors, this study suggests that childhood neighborhood peers had a strong and lasting influence on the health behavior of men growing up before the health gradient was fully established. Hence, our applied life-course perspective on childhood neighborhoods is crucial to better understand the mortality differentials by SES.
(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/f67575c8-aaab-4dc8-a7f3-1da2041caf11
- author
- Hedefalk, Finn
LU
; van Dijk, Ingrid Kirsten
LU
and Dribe, Martin
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2022-10-15
- type
- Working paper/Preprint
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- childhood, geography, life-course, micro-level, mortality, neighborhood
- pages
- 15 pages
- publisher
- SocArXiv
- DOI
- 10.31235/osf.io/ynpb3
- project
- The long reach of the neighborhood: Health, education and earnings in Landskrona, Sweden, 1904-2015
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- f67575c8-aaab-4dc8-a7f3-1da2041caf11
- alternative location
- https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/ynpb3/
- date added to LUP
- 2022-12-05 14:10:19
- date last changed
- 2022-12-06 14:08:25
@misc{f67575c8-aaab-4dc8-a7f3-1da2041caf11,
abstract = {{The socioeconomic health gradient has widened since the mid-21st century, but the role of childhood neighborhoods remains underexplored. Most neighborhood studies on health are cross-sectional, and longitudinal research is lacking.<br/><br/>We analyze how socioeconomic neighborhood conditions in childhood influence cause-specific deaths in adulthood. We use uniquely detailed geocoded longitudinal microdata for the Swedish town of Landskrona, 1939-1967, linked to Swedish national registers, 1968-2015. We measure neighborhood SES by social class and use dynamic sizes of individual neighborhoods. Cox proportional hazards models are employed to estimate the impact of neighbor’s social class in childhood (ages 1-17) on mortality in ages 40-69. We control for class origin, class in adulthood, schools, and physical neighborhood characteristics.<br/><br/>The class of the nearby, same-age, childhood neighbors had a lasting effect on male all-cause and preventable, but not non-preventable, mortality. Men who grew up with having 10% more children from white-collar families as close-proximity neighbors had an 8% lower mortality risk due to preventable causes of death in adulthood. The mortality for women was not affected by their childhood neighbors, although both a lower adult class and class origin increased their mortality.<br/><br/>Because preventable causes of death are linked to lifestyle factors, this study suggests that childhood neighborhood peers had a strong and lasting influence on the health behavior of men growing up before the health gradient was fully established. Hence, our applied life-course perspective on childhood neighborhoods is crucial to better understand the mortality differentials by SES.<br/>}},
author = {{Hedefalk, Finn and van Dijk, Ingrid Kirsten and Dribe, Martin}},
keywords = {{childhood; geography; life-course; micro-level; mortality; neighborhood}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{10}},
note = {{Preprint}},
pages = {{1--15}},
publisher = {{SocArXiv}},
title = {{Childhood neighborhoods and cause-specific adult mortality in Sweden 1939-2015}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/ynpb3}},
doi = {{10.31235/osf.io/ynpb3}},
year = {{2022}},
}