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. 2018 Sep;63(7):799-810.
doi: 10.1007/s00038-018-1111-9. Epub 2018 May 17.

Effect of childhood socioeconomic conditions on cancer onset in later life: an ambidirectional cohort study

Bernadette W A van der Linden  1   2 , Delphine S Courvoisier  3   4 , Boris Cheval  3   4 , Stefan Sieber  3 , Piet Bracke  5 , Idris Guessous  6   7   8   9 , Claudine Burton-Jeangros  3 , Matthias Kliegel  3   10 , Stéphane Cullati  3   4
Affiliations

Effect of childhood socioeconomic conditions on cancer onset in later life: an ambidirectional cohort study

Bernadette W A van der Linden et al. Int J Public Health. 2018 Sep.

Abstract

Objectives: Living in low socioeconomic conditions during childhood is associated with poor health outcomes in later life. Whether this link also applies to cancer is unclear. We examined whether childhood socioeconomic conditions (CSCs) are associated with cancer risk in later life and whether this effect remained after adjusting for adulthood socioeconomic conditions (ASCs).

Methods: Data for 26,431 individuals ≥ 50 years old included in SHARE were analysed. CSCs were constructed by using indicators of living conditions at age 10. ASC indicators were education, main occupation, and household income. Gender-stratified associations of CSCs with cancer onset (overall and by site) were assessed by Cox regression.

Results: In total, 2852 individuals were diagnosed with cancer. For both men and women, risk of overall cancer was increased for advantaged CSCs and remained so after adjusting for ASCs (hazard ratio = 1.36, 95% CI 1.10, 1.63, and 1.70, 95% CI 1.41, 2.07).

Conclusions: Advantaged CSCs are associated with an increased risk of overall cancer at older age, but results vary by cancer sites and sex. Participation in cancer screening or exposure to risk factors may differ by social conditions.

Keywords: Ageing; Cancer; Life course; Old age; Socioeconomic conditions.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The study was part of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) study, which is a multidisciplinary and cross-national panel database of microdata on health, socioeconomic status and social and family networks of more than 120,000 individuals aged 50 or older and covers 27 European countries and Israel (see www.share-project.org). During waves 1–4, SHARE was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Mannheim. From wave 4 onwards, SHARE was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Council of the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG).

Informed consent

Written informed consent was obtained from all individuals included in the study.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Kaplan–Meier curve for the cumulative proportion of cancer-free participants over time by gender and childhood socioeconomic conditions (the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, collected in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, 2016). Note: in the analyses, age started at birth, but is presented from age 50 onwards in the figure
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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