Social Mobility

Wealth over the life course in low- and middle-income countries

Wealth has a multifactorial role in health over the life course. Most studies exploring the role of wealth and other domains of socioeconomic position (SEP) with health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have been cross-sectional. The aims of my dissertation were to measure and describe the dynamics of wealth mobility over the life course, the association of wealth mobility with health, and the relative roles of subjective and objective measures of SEP in predicting health. We investigated these questions among nearly 15,000 individuals with 22 to 51 years of follow-up through the Consortium on Health-Orientated Research in Transitional Societies (COHORTS) collaboration – a consortium of six birth cohorts from five LMICs (Brazil, Guatemala, India, Philippines and South Africa). First, the temporally harmonized asset index, created from consistently collected assets and housing characteristics, shows that wealth increased over the life course in all cohorts. Second, maternal and own attained schooling predicted future relative wealth mobility as measured by conditional wealth in four cohorts (Brazil, Guatemala, Philippines and South Africa). In turn, relative wealth mobility over the life course was positively associated with intelligence, and mobility in the most recent period was associated with emotional wellbeing and psychological distress. Third, life stages when relative wealth mobility was associated with BMI varied between cohorts consistent with anticipated cohort effects of the obesity transition. Fourth, subjective social status, after adjusting for objective measures of SEP (such as schooling, wealth and employment), showed small and consistent associations with happiness, but not BMI or psychological distress, in three birth cohorts (Guatemala, Philippines and South Africa).

This is past work with Dr. Aryeh Stein.

Funding: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Publications

1. Varghese 2022 Wellbeing, Space & Society on subjective social status, and health in three LMICs
2. Varghese 2022 BMC Medical Research Methodology on conditional wealth as a measure of relative social mobility
3. Varghese 2021 SSM Population Health on subjective social status, nutritional status and mental health in Guatemala
4. Varghese 2021 SSM Population Health on relative wealth mobility and health in Guatemala
5. Varghese 2021 SSM Population Health on temporally harmonized asset index in five countries (Brazil, Guatemala, India, Philippines, South Africa)
6. Varghese 2021 BMC Medical Research Methodology on temporally harmonized asset index in Guatemala