Theme 3

Family lifecourses, socio-economic disparities and health in later-life

In all our analyses, we took account of indicators of socio-economic status and variations between socio-economic groups in the associations of interest. In this third integrative theme of work, which is still in progress, we focussed more explicitly on possible interactive or offsetting influences of family life courses and socio-economic trajectories on later life health. The main questions of interest were whether strengths or weaknesses in family related or material domains offset or compound each other and whether the relative importance of these changes as people age. Using Norwegian data, we examined the combined impact of marital status and education on mortality, including consideration of spouse’s level of education. In ongoing work using the UK Understanding Society and US National Health and Aging Trends studies, we are analysing how life course typologies, differentiated taking account of both family related and socio-economic variables are related to health trajectories in later-life.