(Adverse socioeconomic conditions in childhood and cause specific adult mortality: prospective observational study)

Inequalities in health start in the cradle and children from poorer families carry that health disadvantage into adulthood and earlier mortality. But some causes of death are more strongly linked to childhood circumstances than others. Deaths from stroke and stomach cancer are particularly strongly linked to childhood deprivation, whereas deaths from accidents, violence and lung cancer are dependent on factors during adulthood. Mortality from coronary heart disease and respiratory disease relate to social circumstances in both childhood and adulthood.

The authors, George Davey Smith et al, studied 5766 men aged 35-64 in the West of Scotland. They warn that the increasing child poverty seen in Britain over the last 20 years may well herald unfavourable future trends in adult health.

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Professor Davey Smith, Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Canynge Hall, Bristol BS8 2PR

t: +44 117 928 7329 f: +44 117 928 7325 e-mail: [email protected]