Mel Bartley

• BA, MSc (Econ) Medical Sociology, PhD, FBA
• Professor Emeritus at University College London

In the context of an ageing population and longer working lives, the impact of increasing rates of early exit from the labour force on quality of life is a particularly current concern. However, relatively little is known about the impact on quality of life of later-life labour force transitions and various forms of early exit from the labour force...

Background Socioeconomic inequalities are well established across health, morbidity and mortality measures. Social class theory describes how social groups relate, interact and accrue advantages/disadvantages relative to one another, with different theorists emphasising different dimensions. In the context of health inequalities, different social c...

Objectives: This study aims to understand the association of life course intergenerational social mobility with Allostatic Load burden in mid-life and older ages in Ireland. Methods: The study involved biological data for 3,987 older adults participating in The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA). Intergenerational social mobility was cha...

Background Few studies have examined the interactions between individual socioeconomic position and neighbourhood deprivation and the findings so far are heterogeneous. Using a large sample of diverse cohorts, we investigated the interaction effect of neighbourhood socioeconomic deprivation and individual socioeconomic position, assessed using educ...

Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been associated with poorer health across the life course. Previous studies have used cumulative risk scores (ACE scores) or individual ACEs but these two approaches have important shortcomings. ACE scores assume that each adversity is equally important for the outcome of interest and the single...

Previous research has demonstrated a graded relationship between the number of Adverse Childhood Experiences reported (an ACE score) and child outcomes. However, ACE scores lack specificity and ignore the patterning of adversities, which are informative for interventions. The aim of the present study was to explore the clustering of ACEs and whethe...

Funded by the European Commission Horizon 2020 programme, the Lifepath research consortium aimed to investigate the effects of socioeconomic inequalities on the biology of healthy aging. The main research questions included the impact of inequalities on health, the role of behavioral and other risk factors, the underlying biological mechanisms, the...

A large body of literature has shown marked differences in the average levels of resources and child well-being across different family structures. Studies have examined cognitive, educational and behavioural outcomes; less is known about differentials in physical health, and about dynamics in early childhood. Furthermore, up to the present time, l...

Health inequality refers to the universal finding of public health research that most major diseases and life expectancy are related to social position. “Social position” is an umbrella term that covers occupational social class, prestige, income and wealth. Individuals and groups with more favourable occupational conditions, higher prestige, incom...

The literature on health inequalities often uses measures of socio-economic position pragmatically to rank the population to describe inequalities in health rather than to understand social and economic relationships between groups. Theoretical considerations about the meaning of different measures, the social processes they describe, and how these...

Unhealthy behaviors and their social patterning have been frequently proposed as factors mediating socioeconomic differences in health. However, a clear quantification of the contribution of health behaviors to the socioeconomic gradient in health is lacking. This study systematically reviews the role of health behaviors in explaining socioeconomic...

Background Several social indicators have been used in epidemiological research to describe socioeconomic position (SEP) of people in societies. Among SEP indicators, those more frequently used are education, occupational class and income. Differences in the incidence of several health outcomes have been reported consistently, independently from th...

Association between socioeconomic variables and mortality separated by cohort. Males. (DOC)

Association between socioeconomic variables and mortality separated by cohort. Females. (DOC)

Harmonization of FATHER’S JOB. (DOC)

Cohorts description. (DOC)

Harmonization of EDUCATION. (DOC)

Harmonization of CURRENT/LAST JOB. (DOC)

Meta-analysis of the association between current/last job and mortality separating skilled and semi- and unskilled workers. (DOC)

Meta-analysis of the association between fathers’ job and mortality separating skilled and semi- and unskilled workers. (DOC)

Introduction: Unemployment may represent a substantial source of psychosocial stress, and is linked to both increased risk of morbidity and mortality and adverse health-related behaviours. Few studies have examined the association of unemployment with systemic inflammation, a plausible mediator of the associations of psychosocial stress and health...

Interdisciplinary research and teaching often present similar challenges to investigators and teachers in higher education settings. Capturing and harnessing disciplinary knowledge from different fields to strengthen the process is desirable. However, in practice, this may be difficult to achieve. In this paper we set out a methodology developed in...

In an opening paper Cyrille Delpierre, Cristina Barbosa-Solis, Jerome Torrisani, Muriel Darnaudery, Melanie Bartley, David Blane and Michelle Kelly-Irving explore the concept of Allostatic Load as a way of examining health inequalities. The impact of the environment on our biological systems is summarised by the concept of embodiment. The biologica...

My story is one of grim determination and stubbornness in the face of recurring hurdles. I tell it here as a cautionary tale, in part. I am sure I made mistakes, maybe also there was a certain inevitability to my path, but perhaps this story, my story, will resonate with others or will even act as an encouragement. I have been told that the student...

The social gradient in smoking is well known, with higher rates among those in less advantaged socioeconomic position. Some recent research has reported that personality characteristics partly explain this gradient. However, the majority of existing work is limited by cross-sectional designs unsuitable to determine whether differences in conscienti...

Background There is raised risk of mortality following unemployment, and reviews have consistently found worse psychological health among the unemployed. Inflammation is increasingly implicated as a mediating factor relating stress to physical disease and is strongly linked to depression. Inflammation may, therefore, be implicated in processes asso...

Background: There are conflicting views as to whether childhood wheezing represents several discreet entities or a single but variable disease. Classification has centered on phenotypes often derived using subjective criteria, small samples, and/or with little data for young children. This is particularly problematic as asthmatic features appear t...

Abstract This chapter examines gender differences in socioeconomic attainment and wellbeing among English men and women born in the first half of the 20th century using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). We find a fairly traditional picture of gender difference. Women’s attainment in education and occupational class was significantly...

Introduction L’environnement, en particulier psychosocial, pourrait « pénétrer sous la peau », notamment en cas d’exposition précoce, en mettant en jeu des mécanismes biologiques divers, et ainsi expliquer une partie du gradient social de santé observé dans de nombreux pays. Objectif Explorer le lien entre situation psychosociale depuis l’enfance...

Background Social isolation is known to be associated with poorer health amongst adults, including coronary heart disease. It is hypothesized that this association may be mediated by inflammation. There has been little prospective research on the long-term impact of social isolation in childhood on adult health or the pathways which might be involv...

Recent research has highlighted the importance of former life stages in explaining social inequalities in health at older age. In this paper, we describe working conditions during adulthood and analyse their influence on health after labour market exit. Analyses are based on two longitudinal studies with comparable information across 14 European co...

To examine independent associations between childhood exposures to smoking and household dampness, and phlegm and cough in adulthood.

To examine independent associations between childhood exposures to smoking and household dampness, and phlegm and cough in adulthood. A prospective cohort study. 7320 of the British cohort who were born during 1 week in 1970 and had complete data for childhood and adult information. Experiences of phlegm and coughing over the previous 3 months were...

An association between parental separation or divorce occurring in childhood and increased psychological distress in adulthood is well established. However relatively little is known about why this association exists and how the mechanisms might differ for men and women. We investigate why this association exists, focussing on material and relation...

The life course perspective is bringing about major change in the way in which epidemiological research for public health is done. It is increasingly acknowledged that both hazardous exposures and protective factors may accumulate over the lifetime of an individual. In addition, there may be critical periods at which exposures make more or less dif...

Background Social mobility features high on political agendas and debates around inequalities in health but little is known about the impact of social mobility on well-being in children. Firstly, we assess whether child well-being is linked to social mobility in the first few years of life. Secondly, we examine two hypothesised mechanisms by which...

To analyse whether Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) are associated with an increased risk of cancer. The National child development study (NCDS) is a prospective birth cohort study with data collected over 50 years. The NCDS included all live births during one week in 1958 (n = 18558) in Great Britain. Self-reported cancer incidence was based on...

Events causing stress responses during sensitive periods of rapid neurological development in childhood may be early determinants of all-cause premature mortality. Using a British birth cohort study of individuals born in 1958, the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and mortality ≤50 year was examined for men (n = 7,816) and w...

Effects of labor force participation on mental health can be difficult to discern due to the possibility of selection bias. Previous research typically adjusts for direct selection (reverse causality) but ignores indirect selection (unmeasured confounders). We investigate the relationship between men's employment transitions and mental health using...

The objective of this study was to establish the direction of causality in the relationship between labour market status and psychological well-being by investigating how transitions between secure employment, insecure employment, unemployment, permanent sickness and other economic inactivity predict changes in psychological well-being over a 16-ye...

To investigate the association between breast feeding and intergenerational social mobility and the possible mediating role of neurological and stress mechanisms. Secondary analysis of data from the 1958 and the 1970 British Cohort Studies. Longitudinal study of individuals born in Britain during 1 week in 1958 and 1970. 17 419 individuals particip...

Studies of health inequalities in Japan have increased since the millennium. However, there remains a lack of an accepted theory-based classification to measure occupation-related social position for Japan. This study attempts to derive such a classification based on the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification in the UK. Using routinely c...

This study investigates whether the unemployment rate of the area in which an individual lives affects their level of psychological distress, and the extent to which this is dependent on their own labour market status. Data were taken from the British Household Panel Survey (1991-2008) and longitudinal multiple membership multilevel modelling was c...

Considerable evidence suggests that patients with more advantaged Socio-Economic Positions undergo Total Hip and Knee Replacement (THR/TKR) more often, despite having a lower need. We questioned whether more disadvantaged Socio-Economic Position is associated with an lower improvement in Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) and a lower patient sa...

Scatterplots of the improvement in HRQoL as a function of the follow-up period length, stratified per completed levels of schooling, for Total Knee Replacement Patients. U+HVE+PHVSE: University, Higher Vocational Education and Preparatory Higher Vocational & Scientific Education; MVE+PMVE: Middle Vocational Education and Preparatory Middle Vocation...

Scatterplots of the improvement in HRQoL as a function of the follow-up period length, stratified per completed levels of schooling, for Total Hip Replacement Patients. U+HVE+PHVSE: University, Higher Vocational Education and Preparatory Higher Vocational & Scientific Education; MVE+PMVE: Middle Vocational Education and Preparatory Middle Vocationa...

Scatterplots of the NRSS after surgery as a function of the follow-up period length, stratified per completed levels of schooling, for Total Hip Replacement Patients. U+HVE+PHVSE: University, Higher Vocational Education and Preparatory Higher Vocational & Scientific Education; MVE+PMVE: Middle Vocational Education and Preparatory Middle Vocational...

Scatterplots of the NRSS after surgery as a function of the follow-up period length, stratified per completed levels of schooling, for Total Knee Replacement Patients. U+HVE+PHVSE: University, Higher Vocational Education and Preparatory Higher Vocational & Scientific Education; MVE+PMVE: Middle Vocational Education and Preparatory Middle Vocational...

The relation between intra-generational social class mobility of parents and their children's subsequent educational qualifications, and the implications of this relation for educational stratification, is explored by fitting statistical models to data from two UK longitudinal datasets: one based on the UK Census (ONS LS) and the 1970 birth cohort...

We tested the hypothesis that the relationship between social class measured according to employment relations and conditions and quality of life in older people was due to the influence of social class on the perception individuals had about their place in a social hierarchy. We used the data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) in...

Parental separation has been linked to increased likelihood of reporting psychological distress in adulthood, but relatively little is known about how this association may have changed over time. One hypothesis is that as the experience of separation has become more common, the association with psychological distress will reduce (the 'reduced effec...

Background Breastfeeding has been associated with higher cognitive scores, better test results and fewer socio-emotional problems in childhood. These outcomes in turn predict social mobility. This study examines the effect of breastfeeding on inter-generational social mobility and the role of two biologically plausible mechanisms: via improved neur...

Background: People with larger social networks are known to have better well-being; however, little is known about (1) the association with socio-demographic factors that may predict the size and composition of social networks and (2) whether the association with well-being is independent of pre-existing psychological health or socio-demographic f...

Background: Animal studies suggest that maternal separation is associated with alterations in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis through effects that occur in a critical period following birth. Evidence for an association of the diurnal cortisol rhythm with maternal separation in humans is equivocal. Method: We examined whether matern...

Objectives In the face of economic downturn and increasing life expectancy, many industrial nations are adopting a policy of postponing the retirement age. However, questions still remain around the consequence of working longer into old age. We examine mortality by work status around retirement ages in countries with different welfare regimes; Fin...

Objective To examine the changes in the social distribution of breast feeding and its effect on the psychological well-being of adults via the pathway of childhood psychological health. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting We used two British Birth Cohort Studies: National Child Developmental Study (NCDS, born in 1958) and 1970 British Birth...

Background People with larger social networks are known to have better well-being; however, little is known about (1) the association with socio-demographic factors that may predict the size and composition of social networks and (2) whether the association with well-being is independent of pre-existing psychological health or socio-demographic fac...

Data from the 1958 National Child Development Study (1958–2004) were used in a prospective study of the relation of financial adversity in childhood to lung function in midlife. It was hypothesized that such a relation would be found and would be mediated partly by early housing deprivation, partly by continuities in social disadvantage, and partly...

Little is known about whether the positive effect of breastfeeding on child health extends to adult psychological adjustment. We hypothesized that breastfed babies would have higher psychological well-being in adulthood in relation to the pathway of childhood psychosocial adjustment. We used the available cases with normal birthweight from the Nati...

Objective Existing longitudinal evidence suggests that the link between joblessness and minor psychiatric morbidity (MPM) is likely to be causal, but that many complex processes are at play. This study seeks to contribute to the field by assessing the relationship between labour market position and MPM across the business cycle, looking at the effe...

In recent decades, labour market participation has fallen in men, with large amounts of this decline accounted for by increases in permanent sickness. There is speculation that the rising numbers of permanently sick incorporate more people with less severe conditions than was previously the case. This paper examines the relationship between labour...

Mothers of young children are increasingly combining paid work with childrearing. Empirical evidence on the effects of maternal employment on children is contradictory and little work has considered the impact of maternal employment within the context of the employment patterns of both parents. Data on parental employment across three sweeps (when...

Childhood socio-economic position (SEP) is associated with adult smoking status. Previous studies have investigated mediation by educational attainment. The aim of this study is to examine whether childhood psychosocial factors (cognitive ability, psychosocial adjustment and parental involvement) are important in the association between childhood S...

This article develops a typology of family change over the first five years of children's lives using data from the Millennium Cohort Study. It examines the changes over time of parental living arrangements and describes a range of social, economic and well-being indicators. It shows that nearly three quarters of this sample of young children have...

Background An association between parental separation occurring during childhood and psychological distress has been shown many times. UK divorce rates have increased rapidly since the mid-twentieth century. The “reduced effect hypothesis” suggests that the effect of parental separation may have reduced over time as separation has become more commo...

Background Studies have shown that childhood socioeconomic position (SEP) is related to smoking in adulthood, independent of adult SEP. Educational attainment partially mediates this association; however, previous studies suggest three childhood factors which may also be important-childhood cognitive ability, psychosocial adjustment and parental in...

This chapter examines positive adjustment and resilience as an asset, which can promote good health, even in adverse conditions. It presents a number of different models that have been put forward to explain how resilience works; compensatory, protective and challenge. Resilience is not a constant but is something moulded and shaped by the physical...

This chapter examines the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) for evidence on a number of alternate pathways for parents' health to influence children's health and development, assessing the contribution of parents' psychosocial and health-related behavioural factors to children's outcomes. It considers four possible pathways for parental health to influ...

Research has repeatedly shown a higher prevalence of ill health and excess mortality in men and women who are unemployed. Men who are unemployed, and women who are either unemployed or keeping house full time, are more likely than those with paid employment to describe their health as generally fair or poor. Damage to psychological health associate...

This chapter considers the nature of future public health challenges in the UK based on an assessment of the socio-economic and demographic context that determines health and disease. It explores the lessons and implications arising from: past trends in social, economic, and demographic influences on health (including social and health policy devel...

The Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health has a tradition of publishing articles and commentaries on associations between unemployment and health; work that has helped shaped the agenda for future research in the field.1 2 3 4 5 The article by Lundin and colleagues in the current issue, ( see page 22 ),6 is a welcome continuation of that tra...

Some important misunderstandings about social mobility risk defeating the object of policies to promote it.1 The most important misunderstanding is that social mobility depends on the person. But for someone to move into a more advantaged social situation, there must be a place for her or …