Health differentials in the older population of England: An empirical comparison of the materialist, lifestyle and psychosocial hypotheses

We empirically compared the materialist, psychosocial and lifestyle/behavioural theoretical mechanisms of explanation for socio-economic variation in health using data from two waves of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), a nationally representative multi-purpose sample of the population aged 50 and over living in England. Three dimensions of health were examined: somatic health, depression and well-being.The materialist and lifestyle/behavioural paths had the most prominent mediating role in the association between socio-economic position and health in the older population, whereas the psychosocial pathway was less influential and exerted most of its influence on depression and well-being, with part of its effect being due to the availability of material resources.From a policy perspective there is therefore an indication that population interventions to reduce health differentials and thus improve the overall health of the older population should focus on material circumstances and population based interventions to promote healthy lifestyles.The 20th century witnessed significant improvements in health in most countries including substantial increases in survival to older ages and large reductions in late age mortality. However, substantial inequalities or disparities in the health of different socio-economic groups remain[1-3]. In developed countries with old age structures most deaths occur at older ages and older people account for the majority of those in poor health, which suggests a particular need to investigate health inequalities in the older population [4]. Early work on health inequalities tended to focus on younger age groups, particularly middle aged men. Socioeconomic disparities were thought to be small in early adulthood and later old age and increasingly large during the period between early adulthood and early old age [5], with the declining strength of health inequalities in later life being at least partly attributed to selective m