title: Childhood socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with lower mortality in older Japanese men: the JAGES cohort study.
abstract: Childhood socioeconomic disadvantage has been previously linked to increased mortality risk in adulthood. However, most previous studies have focused on middle-aged adults in Western contexts. Here, we sought to examine the association between childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and mortality among healthy older Japanese adults.
  
  
  
  We conducted a 3-year follow-up of participants in the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES), a population-based cohort of 65- to 103-year-old Japanese adults. Childhood SES was assessed by survey at baseline. Mortality from 2010 to 2013 was analysed for 15 449 respondents (7143 men and 8306 women). Cox regression models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) for risk of death.
  
  
  
  A total of 754 deaths occurred during the 3-year follow-up. Lower childhood SES was significantly associated with lower mortality in men, but not in women. Compared with men growing up in more advantaged childhood socioeconomic circumstances, the age-adjusted HR for men from low childhood SES backgrounds was 0.75 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.56-1.00]. The association remained significant after adjustment for height, education, adult SES, municipalities of residence, health behaviours, disease status and current social relationships (HR = 0.64; 95% CI 0.47-0.87). This association was stronger among men aged 75 years or older, HR = 0.67 (95% CI: 0.47-0.95), compared with men aged 65-74 years, HR = 0.90 (95% CI: 0.54-1.51).
  
  
  
  Childhood socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with lower mortality among men aged 75 years or older, which may be due to selective survival, or alternatively to childhood physical training or postwar calorie restriction in this generation of Japanese males.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Social Behavior / Department of Health Education and Health Sociology, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.|Department of Global Health Promotion, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan.|Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan.|Department of Social Medicine, National Research Institute for Child Health and Development, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Yukako
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tani
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Social Behavior / Department of Health Education and Health Sociology, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Naoki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kondo
authors.affiliation: Center for Preventive Medical Sciences, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nagamine
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomohiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shinozaki
authors.affiliation: Center for Preventive Medical Sciences, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan.|Center for Gerontology and Social Science, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Obu City, Aichi, Japan.
authors.forename: Katsunori
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kondo
authors.affiliation: Department of Society and Behavioral Science, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Ichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kawachi
authors.affiliation: Department of Global Health Promotion, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan fujiwara.hlth@tmd.ac.jp.|Department of Social Medicine, National Research Institute for Child Health and Development, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Takeo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fujiwara
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D031204:Caloric Restriction; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D009026:Mortality; D010809:Physical Fitness; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012923:Social Class; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Childhood socioeconomic status; life course epidemiology; mortality; older adults