Socioeconomic health disparities in a trans-generational perspective and their impact on functioning and participation in work and social lives

Summary:

The socioeconomic position (SEP) of individuals plays an important role in the development of disease, but also in participation in work and social lives. The effects of SEP usually work through determinants like unhealthy lifestyle, poor work conditions, and psychological distress and fatigue. More recent insights with respect to SEP concern themes like social capital, social support, inequality, but also personality, self-regulation and personal control. The influence of these factors differs during the lifecourse and influences the possibility of healthy ageing besides and in interaction with other factors like genetic and biological factors. The interaction between SEP, classical causal routes as genetics, and these recently developed domains is complex but relevant for the development of diseases during the lifecourse. Little variations in hereditary may lead to selection-effects in the social environment whereby final outcomes are strengthened. Key questions are: what are the socioeconomic differences by age group; how are health disparities in different generations related; what is the impact of socio-economic health differences in social and labor participation; what are the causal mechanisms that mediate the effects of SEP; and what is the role of genetic factors in functional consequences and participation in work and social lives, by SEP.