Economic stress and condescending treatment in childhood and adult self-rated health: results from a population study in Sweden

BACKGROUND: Even today, 12% of the children in Sweden live in poverty and many children are exposed to adverse experiences, such as being bullied, which may have long-term consequences on public health. This study examined the associations between economic stress and condescending treatment in childhood and self-rated health (SRH) in adulthood. METHODS: The study is based on 26,706 persons who responded to a postal survey questionnaire sent to a random sample of men and women aged 25–84 years in 2012 (response rate 53%). The associations between childhood circumstances and adult SRH were analysed by logistic regression, adjusting for sex, age, economic stress in adulthood, condescending treatment in adulthood, socioeconomic status and several other known material, behavioural and psychosocial risk factors. RESULTS: In total, 39% of both men and women reported economic stress in their family during childhood. 36% of the men and 41% of the women indicated that they had been treated in a condescending manner, e.g. in school or at home, during childhood. Both economic stress in childhood and condescending treatment in childhood were strongly associated with adult SRH. The associations attenuated, but were still statistically significant after adjustment for adulthood circumstances and other risk factors. CONCLUSION: Economic stress in childhood and condescending treatment in childhood were associated with SRH in adulthood, both independently and through adulthood circumstances. The results underline the importance of taking into account both material and psychosocial circumstances over the whole life course when developing public health measures. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-017-4438-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.