Social
Estimating independent and joint effects of high childhood residential mobility and financial insecurity on mid- and late-life functional difficulty in a national population-based sample Taylor Mobley* Taylor Mobley Kathryn M. Leifheit Onyebuchi A. Arah Elizabeth Rose Mayeda
Introduction: A growing body of evidence suggests high childhood residential mobility and financial insecurity influence health across the lifecourse. No studies have assessed the interaction between these exposures on mid- and late-life (“later-life”) health. We aimed to estimate independent and joint effects of high childhood mobility and financial insecurity on later-life functional difficulty in a national population-based sample.
Methods: This study comprised non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, and Hispanic participants aged 50+ from the Health and Retirement Study with complete exposure and covariate data (n = 9,459). Participants reported childhood mobility and financial wellbeing through age 16 retrospectively. Functional difficulty, which was assessed biennially from 1992-2020, was defined as any endorsement of difficulty with 6 activities of daily living (ADLs) or 5 instrumental ADLs. We used generalized estimating equations to estimate prevalence ratios (PRs) and differences (PDs) for the independent and joint effects of high (4+ moves, 90th percentile) vs. low (<4 moves) childhood mobility and childhood financial insecurity (poor vs. high/average wellbeing) on later-life functional difficulty. We adjusted for age, sex/gender, race and ethnicity, parental education, and US Southern birth.
Results: Estimates suggested high childhood mobility and financial insecurity were independently associated with later-life functional difficulty (PR 1.08, 95% CI: 0.96, 1.23; PR 1.12, 95% CI: 1.05, 1.21, respectively). We found no evidence of interaction between exposures (PR interaction term 1.05, 95% CI: 0.85, 1.29). Estimates on the additive scale were qualitatively similar.
Conclusions: High childhood mobility and childhood financial insecurity were independently associated with later-life functional difficulty, possibly without interaction. Interventions targeting both exposures may reduce the risk of later-life functional difficulty.
