Health-related quality of life and income-related social mobility in young adults

Abstract

BackgroundTo assess the association of income-related social mobility between the age of 13 and 30 years on health-related quality of life among young adults.MethodsIn 1988-89 n = 7,673 South Australian school children aged 13 years were sampled with n = 4,604 children (60.0%) and n = 4,476 parents (58.3%) returning questionnaires. In 2005-06 n = 632 baseline study participants responded (43.0% of those traced and living in Adelaide).ResultsMultivariate regressions adjusting for sex, tooth brushing and smoking status at age 30 showed that compared to upwardly mobile persons social disadvantage was associated (p < 0.05) with more oral health impact (Coeff = 5.5), lower EQ-VAS health state (Coeff = -5.8), and worse satisfaction with life scores (Coeff = -3.5) at age 30 years, while downward mobility was also associated with lower satisfaction with life scores (Coeff = -1.3).ConclusionsStable income-related socioeconomic disadvantage was associated with more oral health impact, and lower health state and life satisfaction, while being downwardly mobile was associated with lower life satisfaction at age 30 years. Persons who were upwardly mobile were similar in health outcomes to stable advantaged persons.

Intergenerational mobility and adult oral health in a British cohort

“…However, only individuals in the stable manual trajectory reported worse oral health by age 33 years than those in the stable nonmanual and the two upwardly mobile trajectories. The present findings reinforce the assumption that oral health in adult life may be more influenced by current rather than past socioeconomic experiences . Our findings also suggest that upward mobility, occurring either gradually (steady increase group) or in late adolescence (late steep increase group), may dilute the negative impact of living in manual social class early in life.…”

“…Previous studies have shown that intergenerational mobility is related to adult oral health . In the Dunedin Study, upward mobility was associated with better dental but not periodontal status while downward mobility was associated with worse dental but not periodontal status .…”

“…In the Pelotas Birth Cohort, the always‐poor group had the highest proportion of unsound teeth, the upwardly and downwardly mobile groups had similar outcomes to each other's but worse than that of the never poor group, which had the lowest proportion of unsound teeth . In Australia, individuals in the stable social disadvantage group had more oral impacts than the reference category of upwardly mobile persons .…”

Analysis of clinical, demographic, socioeconomic, and psychosocial determinants of quality of life of persons with intellectual disability: a cross‐sectional Study

“…In this study, low socioeconomic conditions were not significantly associated with worse QoL, which differs from various investigative studies about the influence of these conditions on the levels of health of the population . This result may be justified, since the sample descriptively presented a homogeneous type of distribution, with regard to socioeconomic aspects, such as family income and the guardians’ educational level.…”

“…The scientific literature presents a wide range of studies associating oral conditions with QoL in children, adolescents, adults and the elderly . Some also demonstrate the impact of social determinants on QoL . However, cross‐sectional studies in ID population which investigate the influence of both, clinical and nonclinical variables, on QoL are scarce .…”