Examining the Role of Early Life Social Conditions on Adult Mortality through Historical Record Linkage: Implications for Contemporary Public Policy

This study examines the effect of early life conditions on adult mortality. The individual, household and community details of children residing in Quebec in 1901 are linked to their subsequent ages at death in late adulthood using the 1901 Canadian Census and Quebec death registers. Preliminary results of logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards regression analyses indicate that childhood poverty status is not significantly associated with risk of death after age forty. Sex, birth cohort, parental literacy status, farm status and number of siblings in the childhood household are found to significantly effect mortality after age 40. Gender differentials in the role of early life conditions are found, with males being affected by a greater number of childhood conditions than females. A forthcoming updated analysis will contain approximately 3-4 times the amount of cases available for the preliminary analyses