Associations among cognitive ability, socioeconomic position, and health have been interpreted to imply that cognitive ability could explain social inequalities in health. The authors test this hypothesis by examining three questions: Is cognitive ability related to health? To what extent does it explain social inequalities in health? Do measures of socioeconomic position and cognitive ability ...

BACKGROUND In Western countries, tobacco use is most prevalent among adolescents in lower socioeconomic groups. The association between socioeconomic status (SES) and tobacco use among adolescents in developing countries is unexplored. Using multiple SES measures, we investigated this association among adolescents in Ghana. METHOD A school-based survey of a representative sample of 13-18-year...

BACKGROUND There is much evidence showing that childhood socioeconomic position is associated with physical health in adulthood; however existing evidence on how early life disadvantage is associated with adult mental wellbeing is inconsistent. This paper investigated whether childhood socioeconomic position (SEP) is associated with adult mental wellbeing and to what extent any association is e...

BACKGROUND We aimed to examine the association between obstetrician assessment of maternal physical health at the time of pregnancy and offspring cardiovascular disease risk. METHODS AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We examined this association in a birth cohort of 11,106 individuals, with 245,000 person years of follow-up. We were concerned that any associations might be explained by residual confound...

This study was performed to assess the relationship between socioeconomic position, according to parental education and participants’ own education, and periodontitis in a large probability sample of the Korean population using data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Multiple logistic regression analyses were used to assess the associations of periodontitis and the...

There is a strong relation between socioeconomic position and health outcomes, although the mechanisms are poorly understood. The authors used data from 1,503 California participants in the 1998-1999 Sacramento Area Latino Study on Aging aged 60-100 years to ask whether socioeconomic position is related to immune function as measured by the body's ability to keep latent herpesvirus antibody lev...

Existing research on the social patterning of women's health draws attention to the significance of social roles and socioeconomic position. Although we know a great deal about health differences according to the occupancy of these positions, we know a lot less about why such patterns exist. This paper addresses this gap by examining the pathways through which social structure is linked to heal...

BACKGROUND Within affluent populations, there are marked socioeconomic gradients in health behavior, with people of lower socioeconomic position smoking more, exercising less, having poorer diets, complying less well with therapy, using medical services less, ignoring health and safety advice more, and being less health-conscious overall, than their more affluent peers. Whilst the proximate mec...

BACKGROUND Cognitive development in childhood is negatively affected by socioeconomic disadvantage. This study examined whether differences in fetal environment might mediate the association between family socioeconomic position and child development. METHODS Data were linked from the Scottish Longitudinal Study, maternity inpatient records and the Child Health Surveillance Programme - Pre Sc...

BACKGROUND Participation in leisure-time physical activity benefits health and is thought to be more prevalent in higher socioeconomic groups. Evidence indicates that childhood socioeconomic circumstances may have long-term influences on adult health and behaviour; however, it is unclear if this extends to an influence on adult physical activity. The aim of this review is to examine whether a l...