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Heavy drinking and smoking, poor diet and a lack of physical activity have been shown to go hand in hand in adults from more disadvantaged backgrounds. But new research from ICLS PhD student, Claire Mawditt, hints that, contrary to previous evidence, being disadvantaged as a pre-adolescent child is not in itself a predictor of those sorts of negative health behaviours later in life.

Making use of data from the 1958 and 1970 British Birth Cohorts, the research traced the social and economic positions of  cohort members when they were aged 10/11 through to age 33/34, when their health behaviours were also examined. Although being socially disadvantaged as a youngster was associated with later disadvantage, there was no link with clustered negative health behaviours.

Commenting on the implications of her research, Claire said: "Our findings suggest that being disadvantaged as a youngster doesn't necessarily mean you will drink and smoke heavily, have a poor diet and do little or no exercise as an adult. This provides scope for policy makers to consider interventions at various points in adolescence and young adulthood, and makes it clear that it's never too late to improve their health and their lives." She added that "decent jobs, fair wages and welfare provisions that ensured adequate income to meet basic needs" were key and called on policy makers to avoid blaming individuals and instead acknowledge the "unequal distribution of resources that shape adult lifestyles". Failure to do so, her research concludes, could result in disadvantages persisting across cohorts and generations.

 is research by Claire Mawditt, Amanda Sacker, Annie Britton, Yvonne Kelly and Noriko Cable and is published in Preventive Medicine.