Socioeconomic differences in health and health behavior from adolescence to adulthood
Abstract
Few studies have investigated health, particularly psychological health, and health behaviour at different life stages. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between socioecomic status and health and health behaviour in adolescence, early adulthood and adulthood among same persons. All 16-year-old ninth-grade school pupils of one Finnish city completed questionnaires at school {n = 2194). Subjects were followed-up using postal questionnaires when aged 22 and 32 years. The results showed greater socioeconomic differences in health and health behaviour in early adulthood and adulthood than in adolescence. In early adulthood and adulthood, significant differences were found in several domains of psychological well-being (self-esteem, psychosomatic distress and depression), self-perceived general health and health behaviour (smoking, heavy drinking, overweight, lower physical leisure-time activity) by own education at age 22 and by own socioeconomic status at age 32.
