Health and health behaviours in adolescence as predictors of education and socioeconomic status in adulthood – a longitudinal study

The positive association of health with education level and socioeconomic status (SES) is well-established. Two theoretical frameworks have been delineated to understand main mechanisms leading to socioeconomic health inequalities: social causation and health selection but how these work in adolescence is poorly known. We studied if adolescent health and health behaviours predict higher education and higher SES in adulthood and if family background and school performance in adolescence explain these associations. Surveys on health and health behaviours were sent to representative samples of 12–18-year-old Finns in 1981–1997 every second year (response rate 77.8