Estimating direct effects of parental occupation on Spaniards’ health by birth cohort

Abstract

BackgroundSocial health inequalities in adult population are partly due to socioeconomic circumstances in childhood. A better understanding of how those circumstances affect health during adulthood may improve the opportunities for reducing health disparities. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of parental socioeconomic status, which is proxied by occupation, on adult Spaniards’ health by birth cohort. The analysis will allow checking not only the direct impact of parental occupation on their offspring’s health, but also whether inherited inequality has been reduced over time.MethodsWe use data from the Bank of Spain’s Survey of Household Finances on Spanish households from 2002 to 2008. Sequential models were used to estimate the influence of the father’s and mother’s occupation on their offspring’s health, trying to disentangle direct from indirect effects. With a sample of 26,832 persons we consider effects for four different cohorts by birth periods ranging from 1916 to 1981.ResultsThe results show that parental occupation has a significant direct impact on individuals’ health (p < 0.01). The effect of father’s occupation exceeds that of mother’s. For those born before 1936, the probability of reporting a good health status ranges from 0.31 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.14–0.48), when fathers were classified as unskilled elementary workers, to 0.98 (95% CI 0.98–0.99) when they were managers or mid-level professionals. For those born during the period 1959–1975, those probabilities are 0.49 (95% CI 0.39–0.59) and 0.97 (95% CI 0.96–0.98), respectively. Therefore, health inequalities linked to parental socioeconomic status have been noticeably reduced, although discrimination against unskilled workers persists over time.ConclusionsGreat progress has been made in the health area during the twentieth century, so that the impact of parental socioeconomic status on individuals’ health has been significantly tempered for those at the bottom of the social scale. However, more efforts focused on the improvement of living conditions for most socioeconomically disadvantaged are needed in order to further reduce social inequalities in health.

Socioeconomic position during pregnancy and DNA methylation signatures at three stages across early life: epigenome-wide association studies in the ALSPAC birth cohort

“…However specific maternal occupations, such as those involving exposure to endocrine disruptors 55 or heavy physical work, 56 may directly affect pregnancy outcomes, although effect sizes are generally small 57 . Intuitively, maternal occupation has a larger effect on birth outcomes than paternal occupation, especially when considering occupation with specific toxic risks, 58 whereas the contrary seems to happen later in life 59 because prestige and access to resources become more influential. Despite this, in our study we were not able to detect any epigenetic signal in relation to maternal or paternal occupation.…”

Distinct influence of parental occupation on cortical thickness and surface area in children and adolescents: Relation to self‐esteem

“…While parents' number of years in education has consistently shown relationships with cognitive outcomes, it may mask quality of education or the resultant occupational prestige as illustrated above. Taken together, parental occupation may be a sensitive indicator of childhood and adolescent SES because it captures position in the social hierarchy, which has consistently been shown to be intimately related to health and life chances (Marmot et al, 1991; Marmot, Rose, Shipley, & Hamilton, 1978; Pinilla, Lopez‐Valcarcel, & Urbanos‐Garrido, 2017). However, we observe that neuroscience studies, thus far, have focused on correlating structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data with either composite measures of SES, family income, or parental education, giving little attention to the component of parental occupation.…”

Non-linear effects of socioeconomic status on brain development: associations between parental occupation, cortical thickness and language skills in childhood and adolescence

“…While parents' number of years in education has consistently shown relationships with cognitive outcomes, it may mask quality of education or the resultant occupational prestige as illustrated above. In view of these caveats, and in light of the fact that much of the neuroimaging literature has focused only on parental income and education, we propose that parental occupation may also be a sensitive indicator of childhood and adolescent SES because it captures position in the social hierarchy, which has consistently been shown to be intimately related to health and life chances (Marmot et al 1978(Marmot et al , 1991Pinilla et al 2017).…”

“…A parent's experience of social rank can structure the home environment and parenting style in ways that are transmitted to, and felt by, the child, especially at developmental periods when social status is particularly salient. Indeed, data from the social determinants of health literature have shown that parental occupation has a direct impact on the health and educational attainment of offspring (Pinilla et al 2017) and that stress during childhood due to parents' occupational status is linked to risk of later cardiovascular problems in adulthood (Deschênes et al 2018). We therefore set out to build on findings in the social determinants of health literature and examine the relationship between parental occupation and health outcomes, specifically, neurocognitive development.…”