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The Intergenerational Transmission of Mental and Physical Health in Australia: Evidence Using Data From the Household Income and Labor Dynamics of Australia Survey

Promoting good health across the life course is high on countries agenda. There is a growing evidence base that health is correlated across generations. We examine the persistence of physical and mental health status across generations and explore how different early life factors and adult outcomes...

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Autores principales: Vera-Toscano, Esperanza, Brown, Heather
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8904362/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35282419
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.763589
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author Vera-Toscano, Esperanza
Brown, Heather
author_facet Vera-Toscano, Esperanza
Brown, Heather
author_sort Vera-Toscano, Esperanza
collection PubMed
description Promoting good health across the life course is high on countries agenda. There is a growing evidence base that health is correlated across generations. We examine the persistence of physical and mental health status across generations and explore how different early life factors and adult outcomes impact on this association. In particular, we focus on childhood disadvantage and childhood health, educational attainment, and social mobility measured by household income compared to one's parents. We use data from 19 waves of the Household, Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The analysis is restricted to young adults (aged 25–35 years old in 2019) and their parents. We find an intergenerational correlation in health which ranges from 0.19 for physical health to 0.20 for the QALY and 0.21 for mental health. After we include covariates related to childhood disadvantage, childhood health, educational attainment, and social mobility, the intergenerational correlations are reduced to 0.13 for physical health, 0.18 for mental health, and 0.14 for QALYs. We find that early life disadvantage is the only factor influencing the intergenerational correlation for all health measures. Policy focusing on reducing the negative impact of early life disadvantage is likely to have a larger impact on improving health across the life course and reducing intergenerational health inequalities.
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spelling pubmed-89043622022-03-10 The Intergenerational Transmission of Mental and Physical Health in Australia: Evidence Using Data From the Household Income and Labor Dynamics of Australia Survey Vera-Toscano, Esperanza Brown, Heather Front Public Health Public Health Promoting good health across the life course is high on countries agenda. There is a growing evidence base that health is correlated across generations. We examine the persistence of physical and mental health status across generations and explore how different early life factors and adult outcomes impact on this association. In particular, we focus on childhood disadvantage and childhood health, educational attainment, and social mobility measured by household income compared to one's parents. We use data from 19 waves of the Household, Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The analysis is restricted to young adults (aged 25–35 years old in 2019) and their parents. We find an intergenerational correlation in health which ranges from 0.19 for physical health to 0.20 for the QALY and 0.21 for mental health. After we include covariates related to childhood disadvantage, childhood health, educational attainment, and social mobility, the intergenerational correlations are reduced to 0.13 for physical health, 0.18 for mental health, and 0.14 for QALYs. We find that early life disadvantage is the only factor influencing the intergenerational correlation for all health measures. Policy focusing on reducing the negative impact of early life disadvantage is likely to have a larger impact on improving health across the life course and reducing intergenerational health inequalities. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-02-23 /pmc/articles/PMC8904362/ /pubmed/35282419 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.763589 Text en Copyright © 2022 Vera-Toscano and Brown. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Vera-Toscano, Esperanza
Brown, Heather
The Intergenerational Transmission of Mental and Physical Health in Australia: Evidence Using Data From the Household Income and Labor Dynamics of Australia Survey
title The Intergenerational Transmission of Mental and Physical Health in Australia: Evidence Using Data From the Household Income and Labor Dynamics of Australia Survey
title_full The Intergenerational Transmission of Mental and Physical Health in Australia: Evidence Using Data From the Household Income and Labor Dynamics of Australia Survey
title_fullStr The Intergenerational Transmission of Mental and Physical Health in Australia: Evidence Using Data From the Household Income and Labor Dynamics of Australia Survey
title_full_unstemmed The Intergenerational Transmission of Mental and Physical Health in Australia: Evidence Using Data From the Household Income and Labor Dynamics of Australia Survey
title_short The Intergenerational Transmission of Mental and Physical Health in Australia: Evidence Using Data From the Household Income and Labor Dynamics of Australia Survey
title_sort intergenerational transmission of mental and physical health in australia: evidence using data from the household income and labor dynamics of australia survey
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8904362/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35282419
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.763589
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