Age and socioeconomic inequalities in health: Examining the role of lifestyle choices

The role of lifestyle choices in explaining how socioeconomic inequalities in health vary with age has received little attention. This study explores how the income and education gradients in both important lifestyle choices and self-assessed health (SAH) vary with age. Repeated cross-sectional data from Norway (n = 25,016) and logistic regression models are used to track the income and education gradients in physical activity, smoking, consumption of fruit and vegetables and SAH over the age range 25–79 years. The education gradient in smoking, the income gradient in consumption of fruit and vegetables and the education gradient in physical activity among males become smaller at older ages. Physical activity among females is the only lifestyle indicator in which the income and education gradients grow stronger at older ages. In conclusion, this study shows that income and education gradients in lifestyle choices may not remain constant, but vary with age, and such variation could be important in explaining corresponding age patterns of inequality in health.