Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2016 Jun;70(6):629-34.
doi: 10.1136/jech-2015-206274. Epub 2015 Dec 29.

Socioeconomic position in childhood and cancer in adulthood: a rapid-review

Jyotsna Vohra  1 , Michael G Marmot  2 , Linda Bauld  3 , Robert A Hiatt  4
Affiliations
Review

Socioeconomic position in childhood and cancer in adulthood: a rapid-review

Jyotsna Vohra et al. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2016 Jun.

Abstract

Background: The relationship of childhood socioeconomic position (SEP) to adult cancer has been inconsistent in the literature and there has been no review summarising the current evidence focused solely on cancer outcomes.

Methods and results: We performed a rapid review of the literature, which identified 22 publications from 13 studies, primarily in the UK and northern European countries that specifically analysed individual measures of SEP in childhood and cancer outcomes in adulthood. Most of these studies adjusted for adult SEP as a critical mediator of the relationship of interest.

Conclusions: Results confirm that childhood socioeconomic circumstances have a strong influence on stomach cancer and are likely to contribute, along with adult circumstances, to lung cancer through cumulative exposure to smoking. There was also some evidence of increased risk of colorectal, liver, cervical and pancreatic cancers with lower childhood SEP in large studies, but small numbers of cancer deaths made these estimates imprecise. Gaps in knowledge and potential policy implications are presented.

Keywords: CANCER; Health inequalities; POLICY; POVERTY; SOCIAL INEQUALITIES.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Hertzman C. The biological embedding of early experience and its effects on health in adulthood. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1999;896:85–95. 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1999.tb08107.x - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kuh D, Power C, Blane D, et al. Social pathways between childhood and adult health. In: Kuh D, Ben-Shlomo Y. A life course approach to chronic disease and epidemiology: tracing the origins of ill health from early to adult life. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
    1. The Marmot Review. Fair Society, Health Lives: the Marmot Review. Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England post-2010. ISBN 978-0-9564870-0-1 ed, 2010.
    1. Ben-Shlomo Y, Kuh D. A life course approach to chronic disease epidemiology: conceptual models, empirical challenges and interdisciplinary perspectives. Int J Epidemiol 2002;31:285–93. 10.1093/ije/31.2.285 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Blackwell DL, Hayward MD, Crimmins EM. Does childhood health affect chronic morbidity in later life? Soc Sci Med 2001;52:1269–84. 10.1016/S0277-9536(00)00230-6 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types