Childhood neighborhoods and health in adulthood: A life-course and nearest neighbor approach for Sweden 1939-2015

This study analyzes the association between neighborhood social class in childhood and later-life health trajectories, controlling for both class origin and class attainment in adulthood. We study the association between socio-spatial neighborhood conditions throughout childhood and a range of health outcomes in adulthood. To measure childhood conditions, we utilize unique longitudinal micro-data that contains economic and demographic information of the full population of the Swedish industrial town Landskrona, 1939-1967, which are geocoded at the address level. We measure continuous neighborhood social class using a k-nearest neighbor approach and spatial regression models. Preliminary results point to clear associations between neighborhood class and adult health, relatively independently from both class origin and adulthood class attainment. Notable gender differences are also found. The final version of the paper will include a range of other health outcomes including diagnoses, cause of death, women’s health at childbirth and birthweight of their children.