Life course socioeconomic conditions and multimorbidity in old age - A scoping review

Multimorbidity disproportionally affects individuals exposed to socioeconomic disadvantage. It is, however, unclear how adverse socioeconomic conditions (SEC) at different periods of the life course predict the occurrence of multimorbidity in later life. In this scoping review, we investigate the association between life course SEC and later-life multimorbidity, and assess to which extent it supports different life course causal models (critical period, sensitive period, accumulation, pathway, or social mobility). We identified four studies (25,209 participants) with the first measure of SEC in childhood (before age 18). In these four studies, childhood SEC was associated with multimorbidity in old age, and the associations were partially or fully attenuated upon adjustment for later-life SEC. These results are consistent with the sensitive period and the pathway models. We identified five studies (91,236 participants) with the first measure of SEC in young adulthood (after age 18), and the associations with multimorbidity in old age as well as the effects of adjustment for later-life SEC differed from one study to the other. Among the nine included studies, none tested the social mobility or the accumulation models. In conclusion, SEC in early life could have an effect on multimorbidity, attenuated at least partly by SEC in adulthood.