PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Yaoyue Hu
AU  - Hynek Pikhart
AU  - Andrzej Pająk
AU  - Růžena Kubínová
AU  - Sofia Malyutina
AU  - Agnieszka Besala
AU  - Anne Peasey
AU  - Michael Marmot
AU  - Martin Bobak
TI  - Education, material condition and physical functioning trajectories in middle-aged and older adults in Central and Eastern Europe: a cross-country comparison
AID  - 10.1136/jech-2015-206548
DP  - 2016 Nov 01
TA  - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
PG  - 1128--1135
VI  - 70
IP  - 11
4099  - http://jech.bmj.com/content/70/11/1128.short
4100  - http://jech.bmj.com/content/70/11/1128.full
SO  - J Epidemiol Community Health2016 Nov 01; 70
AB  - Background Two competing hypotheses, cumulative advantage/disadvantage and age-as-leveller, have been proposed to explain the contradictory findings on socioeconomic differences in health over the lifespan. To test these hypotheses, this investigation examined the influence of educational attainment and material condition on individual trajectories of physical functioning (PF) in unexplored ageing populations in Central and Eastern Europe.Methods 28 783 men and women aged 45–69 years selected from populations in seven Czech towns, Krakow (Poland) and Novosibirsk (Russia). PF was measured by the Physical Functioning Subscale (PF-10) of the Short-Form-36 questionnaire (SF-36) at baseline and three subsequent occasions. The highest educational attainment was self-reported at baseline, and material condition was captured by the sum score of 12 household amenities and assets.Results In all cohorts, participants with a university degree had the highest PF-10 score at baseline and slowest rate of decline in the score during follow-up, while the lowest baseline scores and fastest decline rate were found in participants with less than secondary education in all cohorts and in Russians with secondary education. Similar disparities in the baseline PF-10 score and decline rate were observed across tertiles of material condition, but differences in decline rates across the three tertiles among Czechs or between the lower two tertiles among Russians were not statistically significant.Conclusions Disparities in PF by educational attainment and material condition among middle-aged and older adults in Central and Eastern Europe existed at baseline and widened during ∼10 years of follow-up, supporting the cumulative advantage/disadvantage hypothesis.