ArticleJournal of epidemiology and community health2003
Socioeconomic position in early life, birth weight, childhood cognitive function, and adult mortality. A longitudinal study of Danish men born in 1953.
Article in Journal of epidemiology and community health, 2003. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 52 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
52 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 180 citations in OpenAlex.
- Meta-analysis of epigenome-wide associations between DNA methylation at birth and childhood cognitive skills.Molecular psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Childhood Risk Factors and Adulthood Cardiovascular Disease: A Systematic Review.The Journal of pediatrics · 2021Pooled it
- Intelligence in youth and all-cause-mortality: systematic review with meta-analysis.International journal of epidemiology · 2011Pooled it
- Evaluating the evidence for models of life course socioeconomic factors and cardiovascular outcomes: a systematic review.BMC public health · 2005Pooled it
- Adverse Childhood Experiences, Neurocognitive Functions, and Long-Term Mortality Risk.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Challenges in studying the interplay of genes and environment. A study of childhood financial distress moderating genetic predisposition for peak smoking.Journal Of Economic Psychology · 2023Article
- Birth weight and long-term risk of mortality among US men and women: Results from three prospective cohort studies.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2022Article
- Observational
- Diminished Returns of Educational Attainment on Heart Disease among Black Americans.The open cardiovascular medicine journal · 2020Article
- Discovering markers of healthy aging: a prospective study in a Danish male birth cohort.Aging · 2019Article
- Intelligence and all-cause mortality in the 6-Day Sample of the Scottish Mental Survey 1947 and their siblings: testing the contribution of family background.International journal of epidemiology · 2018Article
- Early life programming of attention capacity in adolescents: The HELENA study.Maternal & child nutrition · 2018Article
- Early-Life Socioeconomic Status and Adult Physiological Functioning: A Life Course Examination of Biosocial Mechanisms.Biodemography and social biology · 2017Article
- Family socioeconomic position in early life and onset of depressive symptoms and depression: a prospective cohort study.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2017Article
- Assessing the genetic overlap between BMI and cognitive function.Molecular psychiatry · 2016Article
- Civil registration and vital statistics: progress in the data revolution for counting and accountability.Lancet (London, England) · 2015Review
- Relation of intelligence quotient and body mass index in preschool children: a community-based cross-sectional study.Nutrition & diabetes · 2015Article
- A life course approach to mortality in Mexico.Salud publica de Mexico · 2015Article
- Modeling old-age wealth with endogenous early-life outcomes: The case of Mexico.Journal of the economics of ageing · 2014Article
- Early life conditions of overall and cause-specific mortality among inner-city African Americans.American journal of public health · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo examine the relation between socioeconomic position in early life and mortality in young adulthood, taking birth weight and childhood cognitive function into account.
designA longitudinal study with record linkage to the Civil Registration System and Cause of Death Registry. The data were analysed using Cox regression.
settingThe metropolitan area of Copenhagen, Denmark. SUBJECTS: 7493 male singletons born in 1953, who completed a questionnaire with various cognitive measures, in school at age 12 years, and for whom birth certificates with data on birth and parental characteristics had been traced manually in 1965. This population was followed up from April 1968 to January 2002 for information on mortality.
main outcome measuresMortality from all causes, cardiovascular diseases, and violent deaths.
resultsMen whose fathers were working class or of unknown social class at time of birth had higher mortality rates compared with those whose fathers were high/middle class: hazard ratio 1.39 (95% CI 1.15 to 1.67) and 2.04 (95% CI 1.48 to 2.83) respectively. Birth weight and childhood cognitive function were both related to father's social class and inversely associated with all cause mortality. The association between father's social class and mortality attenuated (HR(working class)1.30 (1.08 to 1.56); HR(unknown class)1.81 (1.30 to 2.52)) after control for birth weight and cognitive function. Mortality from cardiovascular diseases and violent deaths was also significantly higher among men with fathers from the lower social classes.
conclusionThe inverse association between father's social class at time of birth and early adult mortality remains, however somewhat attenuated, after adjustment for birth weight and cognitive function.
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