Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34193123›Full record

ArticleBMC medicine2021

Parental income gradients in adult health: a national cohort study.

Miriam Evensen, Søren Toksvig Klitkou, Mette C Tollånes, Simon Øverland, Torkild Hovde Lyngstad, Stein Emil Vollset, Jonas Minet Kinge

Open access · goldAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in BMC medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
10citing papers in PubMed
1.4field-weighted citation impact, top 16% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

10 citing papers in PubMed, 21 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
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  4. Parental income and psychiatric disorders from age 10 to 40: a genetically informative population study.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.

Miriam EvensenCentre for Disease Burden, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, PO Box 222, Skøyen, 0213, Oslo, Norway. Miriam.Evensen@fhi.no.ORCID 0000-0003-1839-0679
Søren Toksvig KlitkouCentre for Disease Burden, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, PO Box 222, Skøyen, 0213, Oslo, Norway.
Mette C TollånesNorwegian Organization for Quality Improvement of Laboratory Examinations, Haraldsplass Deaconess Hospital, Bergen, Norway.
Simon ØverlandCentre for Disease Burden, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, PO Box 222, Skøyen, 0213, Oslo, Norway.
Torkild Hovde LyngstadDepartment of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
Stein Emil VollsetDepartment of Health Metrics Sciences and Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, Seattle, USA.
Jonas Minet KingeCentre for Disease Burden, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, PO Box 222, Skøyen, 0213, Oslo, Norway.
Norwegian Institute of Public Health · NOHaraldsplass Diakonale Sykehus · NOInstitute for Health Metrics and Evaluation · USUniversity of Oslo · NO

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundDisparities in health by adult income are well documented, but we know less about the childhood origins of health inequalities, and it remains unclear how the shape of the gradient varies across health conditions. This study examined the association between parental income in childhood and several measures of morbidity in adulthood.

methodsWe used administrative data on seven complete Norwegian birth cohorts born in 1967-1973 (N = 429,886) to estimate the association between parental income from birth to age 18, obtained from tax records available from 1967, linked with administrative registries on health. Health measures, observed between ages 39 and 43, were taken from registry data on consultations at primary health care services based on diagnostic codes from the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC-2) and hospitalizations and outpatient specialist consultations registered in the National Patient Registry (ICD-10).

resultsLow parental income during childhood was associated with a higher risk of being diagnosed with several chronic and pain-related disorders, as well as hospitalization, but not overall primary health care use. Absolute differences were largest for disorders related to musculoskeletal pain, injuries, and depression (7-9 percentage point difference). There were also differences for chronic disorders such as hypertension (8%, CI 7.9-8.5 versus 4%, CI 4.1-4.7) and diabetes (3.2%, CI 3.0-3.4 versus 1.4%, CI 1.2-1.6). There was no difference in consultations related to respiratory disorders (20.9%, CI 20.4-21.5 versus 19.7%, CI 19.2-20.3). Childhood characteristics (parental education, low birth weight, and parental marital status) and own adult characteristics (education and income) explained a large share of the association.

conclusionsChildren growing up at the bottom of the parental income distribution, compared to children in the top of the income distribution, had a two- to threefold increase in somatic and psychological disorders measured in adulthood. This shows that health inequalities by socioeconomic family background persist in a Scandinavian welfare-state context with universal access to health care.

Indexed as

IncomeMental DisordersAdolescentAdultChildCohort StudiesHumansMiddle AgedParentsPovertySocioeconomic FactorsChildhoodCohort studyHealth inequalitiesParental income

Identifiers

PMID34193123
PMCPMC8247083
OpenAlexW3175513577

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.