RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Early adulthood socioeconomic trajectories contribute to inequalities in adult cardiovascular health, independently of childhood and adulthood socioeconomic position JF Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health JO J Epidemiol Community Health FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd SP jech-2021-216611 DO 10.1136/jech-2021-216611 A1 Eleanor M Winpenny A1 Laura D Howe A1 Esther M F van Sluijs A1 Rebecca Hardy A1 Kate Tilling YR 2021 UL http://jech.bmj.com/content/early/2021/07/28/jech-2021-216611.abstract AB Background Cardiovascular health shows significant socioeconomic inequalities, however there is little understanding of the role of early adulthood in generation of these inequalities. We assessed the contribution of socioeconomic trajectories during early adulthood (16–24 years) to cardiovascular health in mid-adulthood (46 years).Methods Participants from the 1970 British Cohort Study with socioeconomic data available in early adulthood were included (n=12 423). Longitudinal latent class analysis identified socioeconomic trajectories, based on patterns of economic activity throughout early adulthood. Cardiometabolic risk factors (46 years) were regressed on socioeconomic trajectory class (16–24 years), testing mediation by adult socioeconomic position (46 years). Models were stratified by sex and adjusted for childhood socioeconomic position (SEP) and adolescent health.Results Six early adulthood socioeconomic trajectories were identified: (1) Continued Education (20.2%), (2) Managerial Employment (16.0%), (3) Skilled Non-manual Employment (20.9%), (4) Skilled Manual Employment (18.9%), (5) Partly Skilled Employment (15.8%) and (6) Economically Inactive (8.1%). The ‘Continued Education’ trajectory class showed the best cardiovascular health at age 46 years, with the lowest levels of cardiometabolic risk factors. For example, systolic blood pressure was 128.9 mm Hg (95% CI 127.8 to 130.0) among men in the ‘Continued Education’ class, compared with 131.3 mm Hg (95% CI 130.4 to 132.2) among men in the ‘Skilled Manual’ class. Patterns across classes 2–6 differed by risk factor and sex. The observed associations were largely not mediated by SEP at age 46 years.Conclusion Findings suggest an independent contribution of early adulthood socioeconomic trajectories to development of later life cardiovascular inequalities. Further work is needed to understand mediators of this relationship and potential for interventions to mitigate these pathways.Data are available in a public, open access repository. The data underlying this article are freely available to bona fide researchers via the UK Data Service (http://ukdataservice.ac.uk).