Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Self-rated Health Over the Life Course: Evidence from the 1958 and 1970 British Birth Cohorts

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Pathways to Health

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Population Studies ((BRIEFSPOPULAT))

Abstract

The twentieth century rise in life expectancy is undoubtedly one of the great successes of public health, but in combination with low fertility rates has also contributed importantly to the aging of populations. Population ageing poses great challenges and there is an urgent need for strategies to be developed that will help to alleviate its societal consequences. The proposed work focuses on one promising approach: achieving a ‘compression of morbidity’, or a reduction of the number of years spent in ill health. For a given level of life expectancy, a ‘compression of morbidity’ into a smaller number of years at the end of life would enable people to stay at work for a longer period of time, and also to care for themselves at advanced ages. In this chapter we investigated the progress of self-rated health over the life course in two well characterised population based representative British birth cohorts. The evolution of self-rated health over time differed between the two cohorts, both with respect to the shape of change over time as well as the average level of reported self-rated health. In the earlier born 1958 cohort self-rated health exhibited an almost linear trend with increasingly worse self-rated health being reported by both men and women as they moved from early adulthood to early old age. A different pattern was observed in the later born 1970 cohort, where the average level of self-ratted health remained stable up to age 34, but steadily declined from age 38 onwards in both men and women. In both men and women, the two cohorts reported similar level of self-rated health in early adulthood, but the trend diverged at age 42, where the 1970 cohort reported their health being significantly worse. Our observation of similar up to age 34 and then worse average self-rated health in the 1970 cohort increases the likelihood of expansion of morbidity, assuming that the observed difference as well as the lower mortality rates in the 1970 cohort will persist in the future.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 64.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Bebbington, A. C., & Darton, R. A. (1996). Healthy Life Expectancy in England and Wales: Recent Evidence. Retrieved from Personal Social Services Research Unit.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benyamini, Y., Blumstein, T., Lusky, A., & Modan, B. (2003a). Gender differences in the self-rated health-mortality association: Is it poor self-rated health that predicts mortality or excellent self-rated health that predicts survival? Gerontologist, 43(3), 396–405.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benyamini, Y., Leventhal, E. A., & Leventhal, H. (2003b). Elderly people’s ratings of the importance of health-related factors to their self-assessments of health. Social Science and Medicine, 56(8), 1661–1667.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Birnie, K., Ben-Shlomo, Y., Gunnell, D., Ebrahim, S., Bayer, A., Gallacher, J., & Martin, R. M. (2011). Diet in childhood and adulthood and physical performance in old age: Findings from the Boyd Orr and Caerphilly cohorts. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 65. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2011.143586.77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Birnie, K., Cooper, R., Martin, R. M., Kuh, D., Sayer, A. A., Alvarado, B. E., … Team, H. A. S. (2011). Childhood socioeconomic position and objectively measured physical capability levels in adulthood: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Plos One, 6(1), e15564. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0015564.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bollen, K. A., & Curran, P. J. (2006). Latent curve models: A structural equation perspective (Vol. 467). New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowling, A. (1995). Measuring disease: A handbook for the assessment of quality of life. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cambois, E., Robine, J. M., & Hayward, M. D. (2001). Social inequalities in disability-free life expectancy in the french male population, 1980–1991. Demography, 38(4), 513–524. https://doi.org/10.1353/dem.2001.0033.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cooper, R., Strand, B. H., Hardy, R., Patel, K. V., & Kuh, D. (2014). Physical capability in mid-life and survival over 13 years of follow-up: British birth cohort study (Vol. 348).

    Google Scholar 

  • Crimmins, E. M., & Beltran-Sanchez, H. (2011). Mortality and morbidity trends: is there compression of morbidity? Journals of Gerontology Series B-Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 66(1), 75–86. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbq088.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crimmins, E. M., Saito, Y., & Ingegneri, D. (1997). Trends in disability-free life expectancy in the United States, 1970–1990. Population and Development Review, 23(3), 555- + . https://doi.org/10.2307/2137572.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crimmins, E. M., Saito, Y., & Kim, J. K. (2016a). Change in cognitively healthy and cognitively impaired life expectancy in the United States: 2000–2010. SSM Population Health, 2, 793–797. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2016.10.007.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crimmins, E. M., Zhang, Y., & Saito, Y. (2016b). Trends over 4 decades in disability-free life expectancy in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 106(7), 1287–1293. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2016.303120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Jonge, T., Veenhoven, R., & Arends, L. (2014). Homogenizing responses to different survey questions on the same topic: Proposal of a scale homogenization method using a reference distribution. Social Indicators Research, 117(1), 275–300. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0335-6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeSalvo, K. B., Bloser, N., Reynolds, K., He, J., & Muntner, P. (2006). Mortality prediction with a single general self-rated health question. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 21(3), 267–275.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Desesquelles, A. F., Egidi, V., & Salvatore, M. A. (2009). Why do Italian people rate their health worse than French people do? An exploration of cross-country differentials of self-rated health. Social Science and Medicine, 68(6), 1124–1128.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dowd, J. B., & Zajacova, A. (2007). Does the predictive power of self-rated health for subsequent mortality risk vary by socioeconomic status in the US? International Journal of Epidemiology, 36, 1214–1221. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dym214|ISSN0300-5771.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Enders, C. K. (2001). The performance of the full information maximum likelihood estimator in multiple regression models with missing data. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 61(5), 713–740. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164401615001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fayers, P. M., & Sprangers, M. A. G. (2002). Understanding self-rated health. Lancet, 359(9302), 187–188.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fries, J. F. (1980). Aging, natural death, and the compression of morbidity. New England Journal of Medicine, 303(3), 130–135. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejm198007173030304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fries, J. F. (1996). Physical activity, the compression of morbidity, and the health of the elderly. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 89(2), 64–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fries, J. F. (2005). Frailty, heart disease, and stroke: The compression of morbidity paradigm. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 29(5, Supplement 1), 164–168. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2005.07.004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fries, J. F., Bruce, B., & Chakravarty, E. (2011). Compression of morbidity 1980–2011: a focused review of paradigms and progress. Journal of Aging Research, 2011, 261702–261702. https://doi.org/10.4061/2011/261702.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giele, J. Z., & Elder, G. H. (1998). Methods of life course research: qualitative and quantitative approaches. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gruenberg, E. M. (1977). Failures of success. Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly-Health and Society, 55(1), 3–24. https://doi.org/10.2307/3349592.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grundy, E., & Glaser, K. (2000). Socio-demographic differences in the onset and progression of disability in early old age: A longitudinal study. Age and Ageing, 29(2), 149–157.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harris, S. E., Hagenaars, S. P., Davies, G., Hill, W. D., Liewald, D. C., Ritchie, S. J., … McIntosh, A. M. (2016). Molecular genetic contributions to self-rated health. International Journal of Epidemiology, dyw219.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hebert, J. R., Peterson, K. E., Hurley, T. G., Stoddard, A. M., Cohen, N., Field, A. E., & Sorensen, G. (2001). The effect of social desirability trait on self-reported dietary measures among multi-ethnic female health center employees. Annals of Epidemiology, 11(6), 417–427.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hessler, R. M., Eriksson, B. G., Dey, D., Steen, G., Sundh, V., & Steen, B. (2003). The compression of morbidity debate in aging: an empirical test using the gerontological and geriatric population studies in Göteborg, Sweden (H70). Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 37(3), 213–222. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-4943(03)00048-7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hubert, H. B., Bloch, D. A., Oehlert, J. W., & Fries, J. F. (2002). Lifestyle habits and compression of morbidity. The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 57(6), M347–M351. https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/57.6.M347.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Human Mortality Database. (2015). Retrieved February 2, 2015, from www.mortality.org or www.humanmortality.de.

  • Idler, E. L., & Benyamini, Y. (1997). Self-rated health and mortality: A review of twenty-seven community studies. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 38(1), 21–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jagger, C., Matthews, F. E., Wohland, P., Fouweather, T., Stephan, B. C., Robinson, L., … Brayne, C. (2016). A comparison of health expectancies over two decades in England: Results of the cognitive function and ageing study I and II. Lancet, 387(10020), 779–786. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(15)00947-2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jagger, C., Matthews, F. E., Wohland, P., Fouweather, T., Stephan, B. C. M., Robinson, L., … Brayne, C. (2017). A comparison of health expectancies over two decades in England: Results of the cognitive function and ageing study I and II. The Lancet, 387(10020), 779–786. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(15)00947-2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, W., Li, L., Kuh, D., & Hardy, R. (2015). How has the age-related process of overweight or obesity development changed over time? Co-ordinated analyses of individual participant data from five United Kingdom birth cohorts. Plos Medicine, 12(5), e1001828. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001828.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keyes, K. M., Utz, R. L., Robinson, W., & Li, G. (2010). What is a cohort effect? Comparison of three statistical methods for modeling cohort effects in obesity prevalence in the United States, 1971–2006. Social Science and Medicine, 70(7), 1100–1108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.12.018.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khaw, K. T. (1997). Healthy aging. British Medical Journal, 315(7115), 1090–1096.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krause, N. M., & Jay, G. M. (1994). What do global self-rated health items measure. Medical Care, 32(9), 930–942.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuh, D., & Ben-Shlomo, Y. (2004). A life course approach to chronic disease epidemiology: Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuh, D., Ben-Shlomo, Y., Lynch, J., Hallqvist, J., & Power, C. (2003). Life course epidemiology. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 57(10), 778–783. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.57.10.778.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leon, D. A. (2011). Trends in european life expectancy: a salutary view. International Journal of Epidemiology, 40(2), 271–277. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyr061.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leon, D. A., Lithell, H. O., Vagero, D., Koupilova, I., Mohsen, R., Berglund, L., … McKeigue, P. M. (1998). Reduced fetal growth rate and increased risk of death from ischaemic heart disease: cohort study of 15 000 Swedish men and women born 1915–1929. British Medical Journal, 317(7153), 241–245.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Little, R. J. A., & Rubin, D. B. (1989). The analysis of social-science data with missing values. Sociological Methods & Research, 18(2–3), 292–326.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Little, R. J. A., & Rubin, D. B. (2002). Statistical analysis with missing data (2nd ed.). Chichester: Wiley.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mackenbach, J. P., & Looman, C. W. (2013). Life expectancy and national income in Europe, 1900–2008: an update of Preston’s analysis. International Journal of Epidemiology. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyt122.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manton, K. G. (1982). Changing concepts of morbidity and mortality in the elderly population. Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly-Health and Society, 60(2), 183–244. https://doi.org/10.2307/3349767.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manton, K. G. (2008). Recent declines in chronic disability in the elderly US population: Risk factors and future dynamics. Annual Review of Public Health, 29, 91–113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manton, K. G., Stallard, E., & Corder, L. S. (1998). The dynamics of dimensions of age-related disability 1982 to 1994 in the US elderly population. Journals of Gerontology Series A-Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 53(1), B59–B70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muthen, L. K., & Muthen, B. O. (1998–2015). Mplus User’s Guide. Seventh Edition. Muthén & Muthén: Los Angeles.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nathanson, C. A. (1975). Illness and the feminine role: a theoretical review. Social Science and Medicine, 9(2), 57–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nusselder, W. J., Looman, C. W. N., van de Mheen, P. J. M., van de Mheen, H., & Mackenbach, J. P. (2000). Smoking and the compression of morbidity. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 54(8), 566–574. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.54.8.566.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oeppen, J., & Vaupel, J. W. (2002). Demography - Broken limits to life expectancy. Science, 296(5570), 1029- + . https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1069675.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olshansky, S. J., Rudberg, M. A., Carnes, B. A., Cassel, C. K., & Brody, J. A. (1991). Trading off longer life for worsening health: The expansion of morbidity hypothesis. Journal of Aging and Health, 3(2), 194–216. https://doi.org/10.1177/089826439100300205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Omran, A. R. (1971). Epidemiologic transition - theory of epidemiology of population change. Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, 49(4), 509-&. https://doi.org/10.2307/3349375.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Omran, A. R. (2005). The epidemiologic transition: A theory of the epidemiology of population change. Milbank Quarterly, 83(4), 731–757. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0009.2005.00398.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peres, K., Jagger, C., Matthews, F. E., & Mrc, C. (2008). Impact of late-life self-reported emotional problems on disability-free life expectancy: Results from the MRC cognitive function and ageing study. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 23(6), 643–649. https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.1955.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ploubidis, G. B., Sullivan, A., Brown, M., & Goodman, A. (2017). Psychological distress in mid-life: evidence from the 1958 and 1970 British birth cohorts. Psychological Medicine, 47(2), 291–303. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291716002464.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Polder, J. J., Barendregt, J. J., & van Oers, H. (2006). Health care costs in the last year of life - the Dutch experience. Social Science and Medicine, 63(7), 1720–1731. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2006.04.018.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pongiglione, B., De Stavola, B. L., Kuper, H., & Ploubidis, G. B. (2016). Disability and all-cause mortality in the older population: Evidence from the english longitudinal study of ageing. European Journal of Epidemiology, 31(8), 735–746. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-016-0160-8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Power, C., & Elliott, J. (2006). Cohort profile: 1958 British birth cohort (national child development study). International Journal of Epidemiology, 35(1), 34–41. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyi183.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quesnel-Vallee, A. (2007). Self-rated health: Caught in the crossfire of the quest for ‘true’ health? International Journal of Epidemiology, 36(6), 1161–1164.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robine, J. M., & Mathers, C. M. (1993). Measuring the compression or expansion of morbidity through changes in health expectancy. In J. M. Robine (Ed.), Calculation of health expectancies, harmonization, consensus achieved and future perspectives (pp. 169–286). Paris: Libbey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robine, J.-M., Romieu, I., & Cambois, E. (1999). Health expectancy indicators. Bulletin-World Health Organization, 77, 181–185.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salomon, J. A., Wang, H., Freeman, M. K., Vos, T., Flaxman, A. D., Lopez, A. D., & Murray, C. J. L. (2012). Healthy life expectancy for 187 countries, 1990–2010: A systematic analysis for the global burden disease study 2010. The Lancet, 380(9859), 2144–2162. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(12)61690-0.

  • Sen, A. (2002). Health: perception versus observation - self reported morbidity has severe limitations and can be extremely misleading. British Medical Journal, 324(7342), 860–861.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singh-Manoux, A., Dugravot, A., Shipley, M. J., Ferrie, J., Martikainen, P., Goldberg, M., & Zins, M. (2007). The association between self-rated health and mortality in different socioeconomic groups in the GAZEL cohort study. International Journal of Epidemiology, 36, 1222–1228.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh-Manoux, A., Martikainen, P., Ferrie, J., Zins, M., Marmot, M., & Goldberg, M. (2006). What does self rated health measure? Results from the British Whitehall II and French Gazel cohort studies. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 60(4), 364–372.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan, A., Brown, M., & Bann, D. (2015). Guest editorial: Generation X enters middle age. Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, 6(2), 120–130.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van de Water, H. P. A., Boshuizen, H. C., & Perenboom, R. J. M. (1996). Health expectancy in the Netherlands 1983–1990 (Vol. 6).

    Google Scholar 

  • Waidmann, T., Bound, J., & Schoenbaum, M. (1995). The illusion of failure - trends in the self reported health of the US elderly. Milbank Quarterly, 73(2), 253–287. https://doi.org/10.2307/3350259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waynforth, D. (2012). Grandparental investment and reproductive decisions in the longitudinal 1970 British cohort study. Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 279(1731), 1155–1160. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.1424.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Werblow, A., Felder, S., & Zweifel, P. (2007). Population ageing and health care expenditure: A school of ‘red herrings’? Health Economics, 16(10), 1109–1126. https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.1213.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yong, V., & Saito, Y. (2009). Trends in healthy life expectancy in Japan: 1986–2004. Demographic Research, 20, 467–494.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zweifel, P., Felder, S., & Meiers, M. (1999). Ageing of population and health care expenditure: A red herring? Health Economics, 8(6), 485–496. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1050(199909)8:6%3c485:aid-hec461%3e3.0.co;2-4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Longitudinal Studies, UCL Institute of Education, University College London, London, UK

    George B. Ploubidis

  2. Milano, Italy

    Benedetta Pongiglione

Authors
  1. George B. Ploubidis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Benedetta Pongiglione
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to George B. Ploubidis .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Ploubidis, G.B., Pongiglione, B. (2019). Self-rated Health Over the Life Course: Evidence from the 1958 and 1970 British Birth Cohorts. In: Pathways to Health. SpringerBriefs in Population Studies. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1707-4_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1707-4_4

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-024-1705-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-024-1707-4

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation