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Early-Life Conditions and Edentulism: Adult Achievements as a Source of Resilience

Mon, August 13, 2:30 to 4:10pm, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Floor: Level 100, 113A

Abstract

ABSTRACT
Objectives: Building on prior evidence that early-life conditions have lifelong effects on many health issues, this study examines whether early-life environment contributes to tooth loss in later life. Incorporating insights from a resilience framework, I also examine whether adult achievements mitigate these effects.
Method: Data were drawn from the Health and Retirement Study, 1998-2012. Using factor analysis, I created latent profiles of early-life social status and assessed the effect of these early-life conditions on tooth loss in later life. In addition, resources available in both midlife and late-life were examined as mediators.
Results: Respondents with highly educated parents had a lower risk of losing teeth in later life, but their educational attainment in midlife mitigated this effect. This mitigating effect remained significant even after accounting for later-life resources such as assets, suggesting that early resilience against initial inequality plays a critical in oral health.
Discussion: Early-life conditions had a significant effect on tooth loss but this effect was partially mitigated by midlife achievements. Thus, this study confirms the role of resilience in oral health and shows that upward social mobility in midlife may be critical to impeding the cumulative process of early inequality.

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