Socioeconomic measures in early old age as indicators of previous lifetime exposure to environmental health hazards

The relationship between disadvantage in early old age and disadvantage earlier in life was investigated by collecting lifetime residential and occupational histories from 294 subjects aged between 63 and 78 years. Lifetime exposure scores, expressed as the age-adjusted number of years exposed to a range of health hazards, were calculated. Associations between these scores and six measures of socioeconomic position after retirement were examined. Compared with the more advantaged, the more disadvantaged on each post-retirement socioeconomic measure had higher lifetime exposure scores. Mutual adjustment showed that the Registrar General's (RG) social class, based on the person's own last main occupation, had the strongest association with previous hazard exposure. In the absence of the information required to assign an RG class status, receipt of state welfare benefits in early old age had the strongest association with previous hazard exposure for women, whilst for men, current tenure status was most strongly associated.