Associations of Successful Aging With Socioeconomic Position Across the Life-Course: The West of Scotland Twenty-07 Prospective Cohort Study

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to investigate how socioeconomic position (SEP) is associated with multidimensional measures of successful aging (SA), and how this varies and accumulates across the life-course. METHOD Using data from 1,733 Scottish men and women from two cohorts aged around 57 and 76, respectively, we explored associations of SA, based on the Rowe-Kahn model, with 10 measures of SEP measured in childhood and, distally and proximally, in adulthood. RESULTS Individual SEP associations with SA score were generally consistent across different indicators and life stages: Respondents with the most versus least favorable SEP had two additional positive SA dimensions. There was also a strong association between SA and cumulative SEP based on all 10 measures combined; respondents with the most versus least favorable lifelong SEP had four additional positive SA dimensions. CONCLUSION SEP advantages/disadvantages act and accumulate across the life-course, resulting in widening socioeconomic inequalities in SA in later life.