Modin Bitte, Fritzell Johan
Centre for Health Equity Studies, CHESS, Stockholm University/Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Int J Epidemiol. 2009 Jun;38(3):733-44. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyp001. Epub 2009 Feb 5.
The lasting impact of parents' socioeconomic status on their children's social trajectories and health is well-established, but do such intergenerationally transmitted inequalities persist also into the third generation? This study investigates the importance of parental and grandparental earnings for young men's body mass index (BMI) and cognitive ability at military conscription.
The database used was UBCoS Multigen, which combines existing data on an Uppsala cohort born 1915-29 with information on several subsequent generations. We analysed young men in the third generation with complete information about the earnings of paternal (n = 3577) and maternal (n = 4142) ancestors of the two preceding generations using OLS-regression.
On the paternal side, father's and grandfather's, but not grandmother's, earnings predicted cognitive ability and BMI. In the mutually adjusted models, the associations with cognitive ability largely remained for young men whose fathers [b = -0.96 (95% CI: -1.25, -0.66)] and grandfathers [b = -0.60 (-0.87, -0.33)] were poor rather than well-off, whereas for BMI, only the association with grandfather's earnings [b = 0.78 (0.37, 1.19)] persisted. On the maternal side, the mutually adjusted models indicated that the mother's [b = -0.89 (-1.14, -0.65)] and the grandfather's [b = -0.65 (-0.89, -0.41)], but not the grandmother's, earnings were predictive of cognitive ability, whereas only the grandfather's [b = 0.56 (0.18, 0.94)] earnings seemed to be important for BMI.
The results suggest that the long arm of the family reaches beyond the second generation in its effect on health. Although this study has only scratched the surface of how health inequalities is reproduced, it suggests that policies that reduce social inequalities may have ramifications across several generations.
父母的社会经济地位对其子女的社会轨迹和健康的持久影响已得到充分证实，但这种代际传递的不平等是否也会持续到第三代呢？本研究调查了父母及祖父母的收入对年轻男性征兵时体重指数（BMI）和认知能力的重要性。
使用的数据库是UBCoS Multigen，它将关于1915 - 1929年出生的乌普萨拉队列的现有数据与后续几代人的信息相结合。我们使用OLS回归分析了第三代中有关于前两代父系（n = 3577）和母系（n = 4142）祖先收入完整信息的年轻男性。
在父系方面，父亲和祖父的收入可预测认知能力和BMI，但祖母的收入则不然。在相互调整的模型中，对于父亲[b = -0.96（95%可信区间：-1.25，-0.66）]和祖父[b = -0.60（-0.87，-0.33）]贫困而非富裕的年轻男性，与认知能力的关联在很大程度上仍然存在；而对于BMI，仅与祖父收入的关联[b = 0.78（0.37，1.19）]持续存在。在母系方面，相互调整的模型表明，母亲[b = -0.89（-1.14，-0.65）]和祖父[b = -0.65（-0.89，-0.41）]的收入可预测认知能力，但祖母的收入则不然；而对于BMI，似乎只有祖父的收入[b = 0.56（0.18，0.94）]是重要的。
结果表明，家庭的深远影响在对健康的作用上超出了第二代。尽管本研究只是触及了健康不平等如何再现的表面，但它表明减少社会不平等的政策可能会对几代人产生影响。
