CUPC Presentation – Irma Elo – “Children’s educational attainment, occupation, and income and their parents’ mortality”

Dr. Irma Elo, University of Pennsylvania Population Studies Center

Children’s educational attainment, occupation, and income and their parents’ mortality

Using data from Finland, this paper contributes to the small but growing body of research regarding children’s education, occupation, and income and the mortality of their parents at ages 50 and above. Higher level of children’s education is associated with significantly lower mortality of their parents at ages 50 to 75 controlling for parents’ education, occupation, and income. This association is mediated by children’s occupation and income, except for mortality from lung cancer. At the same time, having at least one of the children educated in health care predicts lower all-cause mortality at these ages, an association that is largely driven by mortality from cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Children’s schooling is a more robust predictor of mortality than children’s occupation or income at ages 75 and above, an association that is closely tied to mortality from CVD.

About Irma Elo:

What Accounts for Race/Ethnic and Socioeconomic Differences in Health and Mortality? Race/ethnic and socioeconomic differences in health and mortality are well known, but factors that underlie them are less clearly understood. My research focuses on how societal inequalities affect these health disparities across the life course, including possible effects of early life conditions and neighborhood context. My current research projects include analysis of race/ethnic disparities in maternal and infant and child health in Philadelphia and nationally, early life conditions and adult mortality in Finland, differences in health and mortality among native-born and foreign-born US residents, and black-white differences in "avoidable" mortality in the United States between 1980 and 2005.