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Noghanibehambari H, Fletcher J. Unequal before death: The effect of paternal education on children's old-age mortality in the United States. POPULATION STUDIES 2024:1-27. [PMID: 38445522 DOI: 10.1080/00324728.2023.2284766] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2022] [Accepted: 06/12/2023] [Indexed: 03/07/2024]
Abstract
A growing body of research documents the relevance of parental education as a marker of family socio-economic status for children's later-life health outcomes. A strand of this literature evaluates how the early-life environment shapes mortality outcomes during infancy and childhood. However, the evidence on mortality during the life course and old age is limited. This paper contributes to the literature by analysing the association between paternal education and children's old-age mortality. We use data from Social Security Administration death records over the years 1988-2005 linked to the United States 1940 Census. Applying a family(cousin)- fixed-effects model to account for shared environment, childhood exposures, and common endowments that may confound the long-term links, we find that having a father with a college or high-school education, compared with elementary/no education, is associated with a 4.6- or 2.6-month-higher age at death, respectively, for the child, conditional on them surviving to age 47.
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Zhu Y, Zhang H, Qi J, Liu Y, Yan Y, Wang T, Zeng P. Evaluating causal influence of maternal educational attainment on offspring birthweight via observational study and Mendelian randomization analyses. SSM Popul Health 2024; 25:101587. [PMID: 38229657 PMCID: PMC10790093 DOI: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2023.101587] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2023] [Revised: 11/25/2023] [Accepted: 12/16/2023] [Indexed: 01/18/2024] Open
Abstract
Background Although extensive discussions on the influence of maternal educational attainment on offspring birthweight, the conclusion remains controversial, and it is challenging to comprehensively assess the causal association between them. Methods To estimate effect of maternal educational attainment on the birthweight of first child, we first conducted an individual-level analysis with UK Biobank participants of white ancestry (n = 208,162). We then implemented Mendelian randomization (MR) methods including inverse variance weighted (IVW) MR and multivariable MR to assess the causal relation between maternal education and maternal-specific birthweight. Finally, using the UK Biobank parent-offspring trio data (n = 618), we performed a polygenic score based MR to simultaneously adjust for confounding effects of fetal-specific birthweight and paternal educational attainment. We also conducted simulations for power evaluation and sensitivity analyses for horizontal pleiotropy of instruments. Results We observed that birthweight of first child was positively influenced by maternal education, with 7 years of maternal education as the reference, adjusted effect = 44.8 (95%CIs 38.0-51.6, P = 6.15 × 10-38), 54.9 (95%CIs 47.6-62.2, P = 4.21 × 10-128), and 89.4 (95%CIs 82.1-96.7, P = 4.28 × 10-34) for 10, 15 and 20 years of maternal educational attainment, respectively. A causal relation between maternal education and offspring birthweight was revealed by IVW MR (estimated effect = 0.074 for one standard deviation increase in maternal education years, 95%CIs 0.054-0.093, P = 2.56 × 10-13) and by complementary MR methods. This connection was not substantially affected by paternal education or horizontal pleiotropy. Further, we found a positive but insignificant causal association (adjusted effect = 24.0, 95%CIs -150.1-198.1, P = 0.787) between maternal education and offspring birthweight after simultaneously controlling for fetal genome and paternal education; this null causality was largely due to limited power of small sample sizes of parent-offspring trios. Conclusion This study offers supportive evidence for a causal association between maternal education and offspring birthweight, highlighting the significance of enhancing maternal education to prevent low birthweight.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yiyang Zhu
- Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, 221004, China
| | - Hao Zhang
- Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, 221004, China
| | - Jike Qi
- Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, 221004, China
| | - Yuxin Liu
- Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, 221004, China
| | - Yu Yan
- Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, 221004, China
| | - Ting Wang
- Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, 221004, China
| | - Ping Zeng
- Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, 221004, China
- Center for Medical Statistics and Data Analysis, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, 221004, China
- Key Laboratory of Human Genetics and Environmental Medicine, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, 221004, China
- Key Laboratory of Environment and Health, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, 221004, China
- Xuzhou Engineering Research Innovation Center of Biological Data Mining and Healthcare Transformation, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, 221004, China
- Jiangsu Engineering Research Center of Biological Data Mining and Healthcare Transformation, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, 221004, China
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