Dataset Information

Work-Family Life Courses and Metabolic Markers in the MRC National Survey of Health and Development.

ABSTRACT: The aim was to investigate whether the combined work-family life courses of British men and women were associated with differences in metabolic markers-waist circumference, blood pressure, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, and glycated haemoglobin-in mid-life. We used data from the Medical Research Council's National Survey of Health and Development-the 1946 British birth cohort. Multi-channel sequence analysis was used to create a typology of eight work-family life course types combining information on work, partnerships and parenthood between ages 16-51. Linear regression tested associations between work-family types and metabolic outcomes at age 53 on multiply imputed data (20 imputations) of >2,400 participants. Compared with men with strong ties to employment and early transitions to family life, men who made later transitions to parenthood and maintained strong ties to paid work had smaller waist circumferences (-2.16cm, 95% CI: -3.73, -0.59), lower triglycerides (9.78% lower, 95% CI: 0.81, 17.94) and lower blood pressure (systolic: -4.03mmHg, 95% CI: -6.93, -1.13; diastolic: -2.34mmHg, 95% CI: -4.15, -0.53). Married men and women who didn't have children had increased high density lipoprotein cholesterol (7.23% higher, 95% CI: 0.68, 14.21) and lower waist circumferences (-4.67cm, 95% CI: -8.37, -0.97), respectively. For men later transitions to parenthood combined with strong ties to paid work were linked to reduced metabolic risk in mid-life. Fewer differences between work-family types and metabolic markers were seen for women.

SUBMITTER: Lacey RE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5001719 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Work-Family Life Courses and Metabolic Markers in the MRC National Survey of Health and Development.

Lacey Rebecca E RE Kumari Meena M Sacker Amanda A Stafford Mai M Kuh Diana D McMunn Anne A

PloS one 20160826 8

The aim was to investigate whether the combined work-family life courses of British men and women were associated with differences in metabolic markers-waist circumference, blood pressure, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, and glycated haemoglobin-in mid-life. We used data from the Medical Research Council's National Survey of Health and Development-the 1946 British birth cohort. Multi-channel sequence analysis was used to create a typology of eight work-family life course typ ...[more]

PMID: 27563726

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Project description:Background/objectivesCombining work and family responsibilities has previously been associated with improved health in mid-life, yet little is known about how these associations change over time (both biographical and historical) and whether this extends to body mass index (BMI) trajectories for British men and women. The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between work-family life courses and BMI trajectories across adulthood (16-42 years) for men and women in three British birth cohorts.Subjects/methodsMultiply imputed data from three nationally representative British birth cohorts were used-the MRC National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD; 1946 birth cohort, n=3012), the National Child Development Study (NCDS; 1958 birth cohort, n=9614) and the British Cohort Study (BCS; 1970 birth cohort, n=8140). A typology of work-family life course types was developed using multi-channel sequence analysis, linking annual information on work, partnerships and parenthood from 16 to 42 years. Work-family life courses were related to BMI trajectories using multi-level growth models. Analyses adjusted for indicators of prior health, birthweight, child BMI, educational attainment and socioeconomic position across the life course, and were stratified by gender and cohort.ResultsWork-family life courses characterised by earlier transitions to parenthood and weaker long-term links to employment were associated with greater increases in BMI across adulthood. Some of these differences, particularly for work-family groups, which are becoming increasingly non-normative, became more pronounced across cohorts (for example, increases in BMI between 16 and 42 years in long-term homemaking women: NSHD: 4.35?kg?m-2, 95% confidence interval (CI): 3.44, 5.26; NCDS: 5.53?kg?m-2, 95% CI: 5.18, 5.88; BCS: 6.69?kg?m-2, 95% CI: 6.36, 7.02).ConclusionsBecoming a parent earlier and weaker long-term ties to employment are associated with greater increases in BMI across adulthood in British men and women.

Project description:The anatomical shape of bones and joints is important for their proper function but quantifying this, and detecting pathological variations, is difficult to do. Numerical descriptions would also enable correlations between joint shapes to be explored. Statistical shape modelling (SSM) is a method of image analysis employing pattern recognition statistics to describe and quantify such shapes from images; it uses principal components analysis to generate modes of variation describing each image in terms of a set of numerical scores after removing global size variation. We used SSM to quantify the shapes of the hip and the lumbar spine in dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) images from 1511 individuals in the MRC National Survey of Health and Development at ages 60-64 years. We compared shapes of both joints in men and women and hypothesised that hip and spine shape would be strongly correlated. We also investigated associations with height, weight, body mass index (BMI) and local (hip or lumber spine) bone mineral density. In the hip, all except one of the first 10 modes differed between men and women. Men had a wider femoral neck, smaller neck-shaft angle, increased presence of osteophytes and a loss of the femoral head/neck curvature compared with women. Women presented with a flattening of the femoral head and greater acetabular coverage of the femoral head. Greater weight was associated with a shorter, wider femoral neck and larger greater and lesser trochanters. Taller height was accompanied by a flattening of the curve between superior head and neck and a larger lesser trochanter. Four of the first eight modes describing lumbar spine shape differed between men and women. Women tended to have a more lordotic spine than men with relatively smaller but caudally increasing anterior-posterior (a-p) vertebral diameters. Men were more likely to have a straighter spine with larger vertebral a-p diameters relative to vertebral height than women, increasing cranially. A weak correlation was found between body weight and a-p vertebral diameter. No correlations were found between shape modes and height in men, whereas in women there was a weak positive correlation between height and evenness of spinal curvature. Linear relationships between hip and spine shapes were weak and inconsistent in both sexes, thereby offering little support for our hypothesis. In conclusion, men and women entering their seventh decade have small but statistically significant differences in the shapes of their hips and their spines. Associations with height, weight, BMI and BMD are small and correspond to subtle variations whose anatomical significance is not yet clear. Correlations between hip and spine shapes are small.

Dataset Information

Work-Family Life Courses and Metabolic Markers in the MRC National Survey of Health and Development.

Publications

Work-Family Life Courses and Metabolic Markers in the MRC National Survey of Health and Development.

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