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The reciprocal relationship between material factors and health in the life course: evidence from SHARE and ELSA

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  • Hoffmann, Rasmus
  • Kröger, Hannes
  • Pakpahan, Eduwin

Abstract

The widely established health differences between people with greater economic resources and those with fewer resources can be attributed to both social causation (material factors affecting health) and health selection (health affecting material wealth). Each of these pathways may have different intensities at different ages, because the sensitivity of health to a lack of material wealth and the degree to which health can influence economic resources may change. We study the relative importance, in terms of explanatory power, of social causation and health selection, comparing the transitions from childhood to adulthood and from adulthood to old age. We use retrospective survey data from ten European countries from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARELIFE, n = 18,734) and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA, n = 6117), and structural equations models in a cross-lagged panel design. Material wealth and health depend on their prior status, wealth more so than health. In the transition from childhood to adulthood, social causation and health selection are equally important: the standardized coefficients for men in SHARE are 0.07 and 0.06, respectively, i.e. one standard deviation increase in material wealth in childhood is associated with a 0.07 standard deviation increase in adult health. In the transition from adulthood to old age, social causation is more important than health selection (0.52 vs. 0.01), across gender and data sets. Both pathways contribute to the creation of health inequalities--however, their relative importance changes with age, which is important for understanding how health inequalities develop and how policies can address them.

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  • Hoffmann, Rasmus & Kröger, Hannes & Pakpahan, Eduwin, 2018. "The reciprocal relationship between material factors and health in the life course: evidence from SHARE and ELSA," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 15(4), pages 379-391.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:200193
    DOI: 10.1007/s10433-018-0458-3
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. James P. Smith, 1999. "Healthy Bodies and Thick Wallets: The Dual Relation between Health and Economic Status," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 145-166, Spring.
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    5. Pakpahan, Eduwin & Hoffmann, Rasmus & Kröger, Hannes, 2017. "The long arm of childhood circumstances on health in old age: Evidence from SHARELIFE," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 31, pages 1-10.
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    1. Hoffmann, Rasmus & Kröger, Hannes & Tarkiainen, Lasse & Martikainen, Pekka, 2019. "Dimensions of Social Stratification and Their Relation to Mortality: A Comparison Across Gender and Life Course Periods in Finland," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 145(1), pages 349-365.
    2. Georgia Verropoulou & Eleni Serafetinidou, 2019. "Childhood and adulthood circumstances predicting affective suffering and motivation among older adults: a comparative study of European welfare systems," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 425-438, December.
    3. Rasmus Hoffmann & Hannes Kröger & Lasse Tarkiainen & Pekka Martikainen, 2019. "Dimensions of Social Stratification and Their Relation to Mortality: A Comparison Across Gender and Life Course Periods in Finland," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 145(1), pages 349-365, August.

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