Objectives: Social participation in middle and older age is associated with lower mortality risk across many prospective cohort studies. However, there is a paucity of evidence on social participation in youth in relation to mortality, which could help inform an understanding of the origin of the association and give credence to causality. The present study investigates the relation of early-life club membership-a proxy measure of social participation-with mortality risk in older age in a nationally representative sample.
Methods: We linked historical data collected on the 6-Day Sample of the Scottish Mental Survey 1947 during the period 1947 to 1963 with vital status records up to April 2014. Analyses were based on 1059 traced participants (446 deceased).
Results: Club membership at age 18 years was associated with lower mortality risk by age 78 years (hazard ratio = 0.54, 95% confidence interval = 0.44-0.68, p < .001). Club membership remained a significant predictor in models that included early-life health, socioeconomic status, measured intelligence, and teachers' ratings of dependability in personality.
Conclusions: In a study that circumvented the problem of reverse causality, a proxy indicator of social participation in youth was related to lower mortality risk. The association may be mediated by several behavioral and neurobiological factors, which prospective aging cohort studies could address.