Heterogeneous returns to college over the life course.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Cheng S
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8673759 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:The benefits of interventions which improve early nutrition are well recognised. These benefits, however, only accrue to the extent that later life circumstances allow. Consequently, in adverse contexts many of the benefits will never be realised, particularly for the most vulnerable, exacerbating inequality. Returns to investment in early nutrition could be improved if we identified contextual factors constraining their realisation and interventions to weaken these. We estimate cost and impact of scaling 10 nutrition interventions for a cohort of South African children born in 2021. We estimate associated declines in malnutrition and mortality, and improvements in years of schooling and future earnings. To examine the role of context over the life-course we estimate benefits with and without additional improvements in school quality and employment opportunities by socio-economic quintile. Scale up reduces national stunting (height for age < = -2SD) rates among children at 24 months by 3.18 percentage points, implying an increase in mean height for age z-score (HAZ) of 0.10, and 53,000 years of additional schooling. Quintile 1 (the poorest) displays the largest decline in stunting, and largest increase in mean HAZ. Estimated total cost of increasing coverage of the interventions for the cohort is US$90 million. The present value of the additional years of schooling is estimated at close to US$2 billion. Cost-benefit ratios suggest the highest return occurs in quintile 5 (1:23). Reducing inequality in school quality closes the gap between quintile 5 and the lower quintiles. If school quality and labour force participation were equal the highest returns are in quintile 1(1:31). An enabling environment is key to maximising human development returns from investing in early nutrition, and to avoid exacerbating existing inequality. Therefore, particularly for children in adverse conditions, it is essential to identify and implement complementary interventions over the life course.
| S-EPMC10022083 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background:Based on the Minorities' Diminished Returns (MDRs) framework, indicators of high socioeconomic status (SES), such as high maternal educational attainment, show weaker protective effects on various developmental, behavioral, and health outcomes for Black than White families. As a result of these MDRs, families and individuals with high educational attainment still report high levels of depression, smoking, obesity, and chronic disease. Limited knowledge exists on MDRs of maternal education on indicators of wealth such as home ownership and home value. Aims:Built on the MDRs framework, we tested the hypothesis of whether the effects of maternal educational attainment at birth on home ownership and home value, as proxies of wealth, vary between Black and White families. We hypothesized that: 1) high maternal education would be associated with more wealth 15 years later, and 2) compared to Whites, Blacks would be less likely to accumulate wealth (own a house) across all educational levels, given a weaker boosting effect of maternal educational attainment on wealth for Black than White families. Methods:The Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study, is a 15-year follow up study of a random sample of births in cities larger than 200,000 population in the US. A total number of 2004 White or Black youth were included and were followed from birth to the age of 15. The predictor of interest was maternal educational attainment at birth, treated as a categorical variable (college graduation). The outcomes were home ownership and home value (worth - owed) 15 years later, as proxies of wealth. Logistic and linear regression were used for data analysis. Results:High maternal education at birth was associated with home ownership and higher value of owned home at age 15. We also found that maternal educational attainment at birth and race interact with each other, suggesting that the effects of high maternal educational attainment at birth on home ownership/value at age 15 were weaker for Black than White families. Conclusions:Diminished returns of maternal educational attainment at birth on wealth accumulation in Black families may be a mechanism that contributes to racial health disparities in high socioeconomic status and also poor outcomes of high SES Black families. That is, a smaller effect of maternal educational attainment on changing the real lives of Black than White youth may be one of the mechanisms by which health remains worse than expected in high SES Black families. Not all of the health, behavioral, and developmental disparities are due to the racial gap in SES but also diminishing returns of socioeconomic status indicators such as maternal educational attainment for racial minorities. Research should study how social stratification, discriminatory mortgage and banking, residential segregation, family formation, employment, and occupational prestige reduce Black families' ability to mobilize their human capital and secure tangible economic and non-economic outcomes.
| S-EPMC7428169 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Using nineteen panels of the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY-79), we construct life-lines characterizing women's childless expectations and fertility behavior. One-quarter of women in the NLSY-79 cohort ever reported an expectation for childlessness but only 14.8 percent of women remain childless. Childless women follow two predominant life course paths: (1) repeated postponement of childbearing and the subsequent adoption of a childless expectation at older ages or (2) indecision about parenthood signaled through vacillating reports of childless expectations across various ages. We also find that more than one in ten women became a mother after considering childlessness: an understudied group in research on childlessness and childbearing preferences. These findings reaffirm that it is problematic to assign expected and unexpected childlessness labels to the reproductive experience of childless women. In addition, despite their variability over time, childless expectations strongly predict permanent childlessness, regardless of the age when respondents offer them. Longitudinal logistic regression analysis of these childless expectations indicates a strong effect of childbearing postponement among the increasingly selective group of childless women. However, net of this postponement, few variables commonly associated with childlessness are associated with reports of a childless expectation. We thus conclude that the effects of socio-demographic and situational factors on childless expectations are channeled predominantly through repeated childbearing postponement.
| S-EPMC6659743 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background and aimsAlcohol consumption changes markedly over the life course, with important implications for health and social development. Assessment of these patterns often relies on cross-sectional data, which cannot fully capture how individuals' drinking changes as they age. This study used data from 18 waves of a general population panel survey to measure drinking trajectories over the life course in Australia.Design and settingLongitudinal survey data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey between 2001 and 2018.ParticipantsA total of 20 593 individuals ages 15 or above in two samples assessing quantity-frequency (n = 20 569, 52.0% female) and risky single occasion drinking (RSOD), respectively, (n = 17 340, 52.5% female), interviewed as part of HILDA.MeasurementsUsual quantity of alcohol consumed per drinking occasion; frequency of drinking occasions per week; average daily consumption, calculated by combining reported usual quantity and frequency; and average reported frequency of RSOD per week.FindingsMultilevel, mixed effects models run with fractional polynomial terms found similar male and female alcohol consumption trajectories for quantity-frequency and RSOD measures. Usual quantity of alcohol consumed per drinking occasion (5.4 drinks for men, 3.8 for women) and RSOD frequency (0.56 occasions/week for men, 0.38 for women) peaked in young adulthood, whereas frequency of drinking occasions (2.5 occasions/week for men, 1.7 for women) peaked in middle age. Middle-age drinkers had the highest average daily consumption of alcohol (1.4 drinks/day for 54-year-old men, 0.6 drinks for 57-year-old women) and engaged in RSOD slightly less than young adults.ConclusionsAlcohol consumption in Australia appears to vary substantially over the life course, with usual quantity per drinking occasion and frequency of risky single occasion drinking peaking during early adulthood and average daily consumption and frequency of consumption peaking in middle age.
| S-EPMC9311147 | biostudies-literature
Project description:While interdisciplinary collaboration is desired among researchers, traditional science instruction generally results in science disciplines being taught as separate entities. This study focuses on student understanding of concepts at the intersection of two isolated disciplines-geoscience and bioscience-across two purposeful samples of college-aged students (United States, Germany). Specifically, we explored: 1) how students conceptualize large-scale biologic and geologic changes on Earth over deep time; 2) the relationship between student's conceptions and their understanding of evolutionary and geologic theories; and 3) how those conceptualizations explicate the need for integration of concepts within school curricula. Students were asked to respond to items about seven major evolutionary events in Earth's history (biosciences) and perceived changes to Earth's size and continental positions over time (geosciences). Both groups exhibited difficulties understanding absolute ages in deep time, although Young Earth and Young Life perspectives were present in the U.S. group and absent in the German group. Conceptions about changes to Earth's size and continental positions over time were consistent across both groups. Findings highlight the need for scientific education instruction in both countries that is interdisciplinary in content.
| S-EPMC8711836 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ImportanceIf we assume that women and men exhibit variations of the same fundamental vascular physiology, then conventional analyses of subclinical measures would suggest that women catch up to men by midlife in the extent of potentially important vascular disease. Alternatively, under the assumption that vascular physiology may fundamentally differ between women and men, a sex-specific analysis of existing data could offer new insights and augment our understanding of sex differences in cardiovascular diseases.ObjectiveTo evaluate whether longitudinal patterns of blood pressure (BP) elevation differ between women and men during the life course when considering baseline BP levels as the reference.Design, setting, and participantsWe conducted sex-specific analyses of longitudinal BP measures (144 599 observations) collected for a period of 43 years (1971 to 2014) in 4 community-based US cohort studies. The combined total included 32 833 participants (54% female) spanning ages 5 to 98 years. Data were analyzed between May 4, 2019, and August 5, 2019.ExposuresAge and serially assessed longitudinal BP measures: systolic BP, diastolic BP, mean arterial pressure (MAP), and pulse pressure (PP).Main outcomes and measuresSex-specific change in each primary BP measure compared with baseline BP levels, derived from multilevel longitudinal models fitted over the age span, and new-onset cardiovascular disease events.ResultsOf the 32 833 participants, 17 733 were women (54%). Women compared with men exhibited a steeper increase in BP that began as early as in the third decade and continued through the life course (likelihood ratio test χ2 = 531 for systolic BP; χ2 = 123 for diastolic BP; χ2 = 325 for MAP; and χ2 = 572 for PP; P for all <.001). After adjustment for multiple cardiovascular disease risk factors, these between-sex differences in all BP trajectories persisted (likelihood ratio test χ2 = 314 for systolic BP; χ2 = 31 for diastolic BP; χ2 = 129 for MAP; and χ2 = 485 for PP; P for all <.001).Conclusions and relevanceIn contrast with the notion that important vascular disease processes in women lag behind men by 10 to 20 years, sex-specific analyses indicate that BP measures actually progress more rapidly in women than in men, beginning early in life. This early-onset sexual dimorphism may set the stage for later-life cardiovascular diseases that tend to present differently, not simply later, in women compared with men.
| S-EPMC6990675 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundAbdominal obesity has become an important public health issue in China. Socioeconomic disparities are thought to be closely related to the prevalence of abdominal obesity. Exploring socioeconomic disparities in abdominal obesity over the life course in China could inform the design of new interventions to prevent and control abdominal obesity.MethodsThe China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) was a prospective household-based study involving seven rounds of surveys between 1993 and 2011. Twenty three thousand, two hundred and forty-three individuals were followed up over an 18-year period. The mixed effects models with random intercepts were used to assess the effects on abdominal obesity. Six key socioeconomic indicators, with age and age-squared added to the models, were used to identify socioeconomic disparities in abdominal obesity over the adult life course.ResultsPrevalence of abdominal obesity increased non-linearly with age over the adult life course. Abdominal obesity was more prevalent in younger than older birth cohorts. Positive period effects on the prevalence of abdominal obesity were substantial from 1993 to 2011, and were stronger among males than females. Prevalence of abdominal obesity was higher among ethnic Han Chinese and among the married [coefficient (95% confidence intervals): 0.03(0.003, 0.057) and 0.035(0.022, 0.047), respectively], and was lower among males [coefficient (95% confidence intervals): - 0.065(- 0.075,-0.055)]. A higher-level of urbanization and higher household income increased the probability of abdominal obesity [coefficient (95% confidence intervals): 0.160(0.130, 0.191), 3.47E- 4 (2.23E- 4, 4.70E- 4), respectively], while individuals with more education were less likely to experience abdominal obesity [coefficient (95% confidence intervals): - 0.222 (- 0.289, - 0.155)] across adulthood.ConclusionsIn China, abdominal obesity increased substantially in more recent cohorts. And people with lower educational attainment, with higher household income, or living in more urbanized communities may be the disadvantaged population of abdominal obesity over the adult life course. Effective interventions targeting the vulnerable population need to be developed.
| S-EPMC6034274 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ImportanceAlthough cardiovascular disease (CVD) begins in early life, the extent to which blood pressure (BP) at different life stages contributes to CVD is unclear.ObjectiveTo determine the relative contribution of BP at different life stages across the early-life course from infancy to young adulthood with carotid intima-media thickness (IMT).Design, setting, and participantsThe analyses were performed in 2022 using data gathered from July 1989 through January 2018 within the Special Turku Coronary Risk Factor Intervention Project, a randomized, infancy-onset cohort of 534 participants coupled with annual BP (from age 7 months to 20 years), biennial IMT measurements (from ages 13 to 19 years), who were followed up with again at age 26 years.ExposuresBP measured from infancy (aged 7 to 13 months), preschool (2 to 5 years), childhood (6 to 12 years), adolescence (13 to 17 years), and young adulthood (18 to 26 years).Main outcomes and measuresPrimary outcomes were carotid IMT measured in young adulthood at age 26 years. Bayesian relevant life-course exposure models assessed the relative contribution of BP at each life stage.ResultsSystolic BP at each life stage contributed to the association with young adulthood carotid IMT (infancy: relative weight, 25.3%; 95% credible interval [CrI], 3.6-45.8; preschool childhood: relative weight, 27.0%; 95% CrI, 3.3-57.1; childhood: relative weight, 18.0%; 95% CrI, 0.5-40.0; adolescence: relative weight, 13.5%; 95% CrI, 0.4-37.1; and young adulthood: relative weight, 16.2%; 95% CrI, 1.6-46.1). A 1-SD (at single life-stage) higher systolic BP accumulated across the life course was associated with a higher carotid IMT (0.02 mm; 95% CrI, 0.01-0.03). The findings for carotid IMT were replicated in the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study that assessed systolic BP from childhood and carotid IMT in adulthood (33 to 45 years).Conclusion and relevanceIn this cohort study, a life-course approach indicated that accumulation of risk exposure to BP levels at all life stages contributed to adulthood carotid IMT. Of those, the contribution attributed to each observed life stage was approximately equal. These results support prevention efforts that achieve and maintain normal BP levels across the life course, starting in infancy.
| S-EPMC10696511 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Social participation is defined as an individual's involvement in activities that provide connections with others in society. Past research has demonstrated links between social participation, improved health and well-being, and reduced social isolation, but has been restricted to older people and has not investigated heterogeneity. Using cross-sectional data from the UK's Community Life Survey (2013-2019; N = 50,006), we estimated returns to social participation in the adult population. We included availability of community assets as instruments in a marginal treatment effects model, which allows treatment effects to be heterogeneous and examines whether the effects vary by propensity to participate. Social participation was linked to reduced loneliness and improved health (-0.96 and 0.40 points respectively on 1-5 scales) and increased life satisfaction and happiness (2.17 and 2.03 points respectively on 0-10 scales). These effects were larger for those on low income, with lower education attainment, and who live alone or with no children. We also found negative selection, indicating those less likely to participate have higher health and well-being returns. Future interventions could focus on increasing community asset infrastructure and encouraging social participation for those with lower socio-economic status.
| S-EPMC10946765 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Early in the last century, it was commonplace for elderly women to live with their adult children. Over time, the prevalence of this type of living arrangement declined, as incomes increased. In more recent decades, coresidence between adult children and their retirement-age parents has become more common, as children rely on parental support later into adulthood. We use panel data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine the living arrangements of older mothers and their adult children over the life course. We pay particular attention to the relationship between coresidence and indicators of parental and child needs. Our results suggest that for much of the life course, coresidence serves to benefit primarily the adult children rather than their older mother. We also highlight a little known phenomenon, that of children who never leave the parental home and remain coresident well into their later adult years.
| S-EPMC5301960 | biostudies-literature