Social disadvantages in childhood and risk of all-cause death and cardiovascular disease in later life: a comparison of historical and retrospective childhood information

BACKGROUND: Childhood socioeconomic circumstances have been shown to contribute to adult mortality. The purpose of this study was to compare the association between objective historical records and recalled questionnaire-based information on childhood socioeconomic position (SEP) with regard to cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. METHODS: We examined the association between a socially disadvantaged childhood and all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality, coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality, and acute coronary events among male participants in the Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease (KIHD) Risk Factor Study, a population-based cohort study in eastern Finland with follow-up until 2002. The historical data on childhood factors were collected from school health records (n = 698), mainly from the 1930s to the 1950s. Recall data on socioeconomic conditions in childhood were obtained from the baseline examinations of the KIHD cohort (n = 2,682) in 1984-89. RESULTS: According to original school health records the men who were socially disadvantaged in childhood had a 1.41-fold (95% confidence interval 1.01-1.97) age-adjusted and examination-year-adjusted risk of all-cause death, a 1.32-fold (0.83-2.11) risk of CVD death, a 1.48-fold (0.85-2.57) risk of CHD death, and a 1.50-fold (1.02-2.20) risk of acute coronary events. After adjustment for biological and behavioural risk factors and for the SEP in adulthood the association was attenuated in all-cause death but did not change in CVD death, CHD death, and acute coronary events. On the contrary, the questionnaire-based recalled childhood data on childhood SEP showed no associations with mortality or acute coronary events. CONCLUSIONS: With regard to adult mortality, the use of historical records concerning hygiene and living conditions collected in childhood may either provide more accurate measures of early-life socioeconomic conditions or capture more relevant aspects of childhood socioeconomic disadvantage than retrospective recall data.