Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, Sept 2003 v57 i9 p681(6)

   Socioeconomic position in early life, birth weight, childhood
   cognitive function, and adult mortality. A longitudinal study of
   Danish men born in 1953. (Research Report) M Osler; A-M N
   Andersen; P Due; R Lund; MT Damsgaard; BE Holstein.

  Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2003 British Medical Association

  Objective: To examine the relation between socioeconomic position in
early life and
  mortality in young adulthood, taking birth weight and childhood cognitive
function
  into account.

  Design: A longitudinal study with record linkage to the Civil
Registration System and
  Cause of Death Registry. The data were analysed using Cox regression.

  Setting: The metropolitan area of Copenhagen, Denmark.

  Subjects: 7493 male singletons born in 1953, who completed a
questionnaire with
  various cognitive measures, in school at age 12 years, and for whom birth
  certificates with data on birth and parental characteristics had been
traced manually
  in 1965. This population was followed up from April 1968 to January 2002
for
  information on mortality.

  Main outcome measures: Mortality from all causes, cardiovascular
diseases, and
  violent deaths. Results: Men whose fathers were working class or of
unknown
  social class at time of birth had higher mortality rates compared with
those whose
  fathers were high/middle class: hazard ratio 1.39 (95% CI 1.15 to 1.67)
and 2.04
  (95% CI 1.48 to 2.83) respectively. Birth weight and childhood cognitive
function
  were both related to father's social class and inversely associated with
all cause
  mortality. The association between father's social class and mortality
attenuated
  ([HR.sub.working class]1.30 (1.08 to 1.56); [HR.sub.unknown class] 1.81
(1.30
  to 2.52)) after control for birth weight and cognitive function.
Mortality from
  cardiovascular diseases and violent deaths was also significantly higher
among men
  with fathers from the lower social classes.

  Conclusion: The inverse association between father's social class at time
of birth and
  early adult mortality remains, however somewhat attenuated, after
adjustment for
  birth weight and cognitive function.

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