title: Contribution of socioeconomic position over life to frailty differences in old age: comparison of life-course models in a French sample of 2350 old people.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the impact of socioeconomic position (SEP) over life on a measure of frailty in old age.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a cross-sectional population study of people aged 70 years and more in which 2350 respondents were interviewed in 2008 to 2010. The relationships between different indicators of SEP (childhood standard of living, level of education, occupational class, and current affluence) and quartiles of a frailty index including 43 variables were assessed in ordinal regression models adjusted for potential confounders.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean age of the population was 83.3 ± 7.5 years, with 59.4% of women. The mean value of the frailty index was 0.19 ± 0.13, with values ranging between 0 and 0.65. All periods of social disadvantage were associated with increasing frailty in bivariate analysis. In multivariate analysis, a poor level financial security in the old age was the SEP indicator the most strongly associated with frailty (odds ratio [OR]: 2.81, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.20-3.59), followed by a low level of education (OR: 1.45, 95% CI: 1.17-1.80) and occupation during active life (OR: 1.38, 95% CI: 1.06-1.79).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Socioeconomic inequalities over life affect health capital in old age. The most important risk factor identified in this study, contemporary financial difficulties, was also the most accessible to prevention.
authors.affiliation: INSERM, VIMA-Aging and Chronic Diseases: Epidemiological and Public Health Approaches, Villejuif, France; UVSQ, UMR-S 1168, Université Versailles St-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Paris, France. Electronic address: marie.herr@uvsq.fr.
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Herr
authors.affiliation: INSERM U988 et U710, EPHE, Paris and Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Marie
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Robine
authors.affiliation: INSERM, VIMA-Aging and Chronic Diseases: Epidemiological and Public Health Approaches, Villejuif, France; UVSQ, UMR-S 1168, Université Versailles St-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Aegerter
authors.affiliation: AG2R La Mondiale, Direction des Etudes, Prévoyance Individuelle et IARD, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Jacques
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Arvieu
authors.affiliation: INSERM, VIMA-Aging and Chronic Diseases: Epidemiological and Public Health Approaches, Villejuif, France; UVSQ, UMR-S 1168, Université Versailles St-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Joël
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ankri
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D016330:Frail Elderly; D005602:France; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D016017:Odds Ratio; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012923:Social Class; D044465:White People
keywords: Frail elderly; Frailty index; Life-course epidemiology; Socioeconomic position