Life-course socioeconomic position and physical function

Life-course socioeconomic position and physical function

Life-course epidemiology

My PhD research on how socioeconomic circumstances in childhood and adulthood relate to grip strength, balance and bone health, using the 1970 British Cohort Study and UK Biobank.

2020–2024 Life-course epidemiology Musculoskeletal health

Overview

Muscle weakness is a key criterion for age-related conditions such as sarcopenia and frailty. Lower socioeconomic position in childhood may be linked to weaker muscles in later life. There was little evidence for younger adults, and little on which stages of life matter most.

My contribution

This was my doctoral research at Manchester Metropolitan University from 2020 to 2023, supervised by Professor Rachel Cooper and Professor Jamie McPhee. I designed and ran the analyses in R, using the 1970 British Cohort Study and UK Biobank. I was lead author of the BMC Public Health paper and co-author of the UK Biobank paper.

Selected outputs

The main output is my thesis, Life course socioeconomic adversity and its implications for musculoskeletal ageing (2023). Among women in the 1970 British Cohort Study, lower socioeconomic position in childhood and adulthood was associated with weaker grip strength at age 46 after full adjustment. Among men, the pattern differed.

Publications

  1. 2024 Article

    Are associations between physical activity and bone mineral density in adults sex- and age-dependent? An analysis of the UK Biobank study

    Montgomery, G., Yusuf, M., Cooper, R., Ireland, A.

    Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, 39(4): 399–407

    doi:10.1093/jbmr/zjae017 Free full text

  2. 2022 Article

    Associations between childhood and adulthood socioeconomic position and grip strength at age 46 years: findings from the 1970 British Cohort Study

    Yusuf, M., Montgomery, G., Hamer, M., McPhee, J., Cooper, R.

    BMC Public Health, 22(1): 1427

    doi:10.1186/s12889-022-13804-7 Free full text

  3. 2022 Talk

    OP66 Pathways between childhood socioeconomic position and standing balance performance at age 46: mediation analysis using the 1970 British Birth Cohort Study

    Oral presentation

    Yusuf, M., McPhee, J., Montgomery, G., Cooper, R.

    Society for Social Medicine and Population Health, University of Exeter. J Epidemiol Community Health 76(Suppl 1): A32

    doi:10.1136/jech-2022-ssmabstracts.65

  4. 2021 Talk

    OP54 Associations between socioeconomic position across life and grip strength at age 46 years: findings from the 1970 British Cohort Study

    Oral presentation

    Yusuf, M., McPhee, J., Montgomery, G., Cooper, R.

    Society for Social Medicine and Population Health, University of Liverpool. J Epidemiol Community Health 75: A25–A26

    doi:10.1136/jech-2021-ssmabstracts.54

  5. 2021 Talk

    Associations between socioeconomic position across life and grip strength at age 46 years: findings from the 1970 British Cohort Study

    Poster

    Yusuf, M., McPhee, J., Montgomery, G., Cooper, R.

    International Sarcopenia Translational Research Conference, University of Newcastle