Lifetime Employment Trajectories and Cancer: A Population-Based Cohort Study.

Working life is associated with lifestyle, screening uptake, and occupational health risks that may explain differences in cancer onset. To better understand the association between working life and cancer risk, we need to account for the entire employment history. We investigated whether lifetime employment trajectories are associated with cancer risk. We used data from 6,809 women and 5,716 men, average age 70 years, from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe. Employment history from age 16 to 65 was collected retrospectively using a life calendar and trajectories were constructed using sequence analysis. Associations between employment trajectories and self-reported cancer were assessed using logistic regression. We identified eight employment trajectories for women and two for men. Among women, the risk of cancer was higher in the trajectories "Mainly full-time to home/family", "Full-time or home/family to part-time", "Mainly full-time", and "Other" compared with the "Mainly home/family" trajectory. Among men, the risk of cancer was lower in the "Mainly self-employment" trajectory compared with "Mainly full-time". We could show how employment trajectories were associated with cancer risk, underlining the potential of sequence analysis for life course epidemiology. More research is needed to understand these associations and determine if causal relationships exist.

Estimating 10-year risk of lung and breast cancer by occupation in Switzerland.

Introduction: Lung and breast cancer are important in the working-age population both in terms of incidence and costs. The study aims were to estimate the 10-year risk of lung and breast cancer by occupation and smoking status and to create easy to use age-, and sex-specific 10-year risk charts. Methods: New lung and breast cancer cases between 2010 and 2014 from all 5 cancer registries of Western Switzerland, matched with the Swiss National Cohort were used. The 10-year risks of lung and breast cancer by occupational category were estimated. For lung cancer, estimates were additionally stratified by smoking status using data on smoking prevalence from the 2007 Swiss Health Survey. Results: The risks of lung and breast cancer increased with age and were the highest for current smokers. Men in elementary professions had a higher 10-year risk of developing lung cancer compared to men in intermediate and managerial professions. Women in intermediate professions had a higher 10-year risk of developing lung cancer compared to elementary and managerial professions. However, women in managerial professions had the highest risk of developing breast cancer. Discussion: The 10-year risk of lung and breast cancer differs substantially between occupational categories. Smoking creates greater changes in 10-year risk than occupation for both sexes. The 10-year risk is interesting for both patients and professionals to inform choices related to cancer risk, such as screening and health behaviors. The risk charts can also be used as public health indicators and to inform policies to protect workers.

Life-Course Circumstances and Frailty in Old Age Within Different European Welfare Regimes: A Longitudinal Study With SHARE.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess whether cumulative disadvantage in childhood misfortune and adult-life socioeconomic conditions influence the risk of frailty in old age and whether welfare regimes influence these associations. METHOD: Data from 23,358 participants aged 50 years and older included in the longitudinal SHARE survey were used. Frailty was operationalized according to Fried's phenotype as presenting either weakness, shrinking, exhaustion, slowness, or low activity. Confounder-adjusted mixed-effects logistic regression models were used to analyze associations of childhood misfortune and life-course socioeconomic conditions with frailty. RESULTS: Childhood misfortune and poor adult-life socioeconomic conditions increased the odds of (pre-)frailty at older age. With aging, differences narrowed between categories of adverse childhood experiences (driven by Scandinavian welfare regime) and adverse childhood health experiences (driven by Eastern European welfare regime), but increased between categories of occupational position (driven by Bismarckian welfare regime). DISCUSSION: These findings suggest that childhood misfortune is linked to frailty in old age. Such a disadvantaged start in life does not seem to be compensated by a person's life-course socioeconomic trajectory, though certain types of welfare regimes affected this relationship. Apart from main occupational position, our findings do not support the cumulative dis/advantage theory, but rather show narrowing differences.

Life Course Socioeconomic Conditions and Frailty at Older Ages.

OBJECTIVES: This article aimed to assess associations of childhood socioeconomic conditions (CSC) with the risk of frailty in old age and whether adulthood socioeconomic conditions (ASC) influence this association. METHODS: Data from 21,185 individuals aged 50 years and older included in the longitudinal Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe were used. Frailty was operationalized as a sum of presenting weakness, shrinking, exhaustion, slowness, or low activity. Confounder-adjusted multilevel logistic regression models were used to analyze associations of CSC and ASC with frailty. RESULTS: While disadvantaged CSC was associated with higher odds of (pre-)frailty in women and men (odds ratio [OR] = 1.73, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.34, 2.24; OR = 1.84, 95% CI 1.27, 2.66, respectively), this association was mediated by ASC. Personal factors and demographics, such as birth cohort, chronic conditions, and difficulties with activities of daily living, increased the odds of being (pre-)frail. DISCUSSION: Findings suggest that CSC are associated with frailty at old age. However, when taking into account ASC, this association no longer persists. The results show the importance of improving socioeconomic conditions over the whole life course in order to reduce health inequalities in old age.