Midlife Health in Britain and the US: A comparison of Two Nationally Representative Cohorts.

We find that health in US adults is worse than their peers in Britain at even earlier ages (30s-40s years of age) than previously documented, especially for cardiometabolic measures. While associations of childhood socioeconomic status and later health were found in both Britain and the US, adult socioeconomic measures largely accounted for these associations. This finding is consistent with previous work and underscores the persistence of socioeconomic position across the life course, with sustained impacts on health. Policies aimed at improving health must consider this link between early and later life socioeconomic circumstances.We also find wider socioeconomic inequalities in health outcomes in the US than Britain. For some outcomes the most advantaged groups in the US have similar or worse health than the most disadvantaged groups in Britain. These findings, along with previously published evidence, have implications for policy and practice, as they suggest sociopolitical differences between the two countries that may drive different health profiles. Systematic differences between Britain and the US in terms of health care and welfare provisions may drive both worse health, and wider inequalities in the US.