Why are middle class older people so much more healthier than their poorer counterparts?

[Gorzf]

Sorry, if this is obvious to people but I can't help but notice all the well off people I meet in their 50s/ 60s / 70s, they're just healthy, their skin is glowing, they're fit and mobile.

I am a child of immigrants who came with nothing. We were quite poor growing up, the only kid in my friendship group on free school meals. Even as an adult I'm not particularly well off, just getting by. Growing up, most older people in my poor area / community just declined. It was almost a thing I thought was just normal, that's what happens.

It wasn't as I grew older and started meeting people from different socioeconomic status that I realised that wasn't the case.

It can't just be about having more money, surely. What is it that they're doing that the poor folk around me didn't do.

Better diet. Healthier lifestyle. More likely to seek medical intervention when unwell.

Less likely to smoke or eat junk.

Better diet
More time to exercise
Less likely to smoke
More holidays
Less likely to have done a physical job

Less stress

Less stress, more rest. Money to access support with healthcare and mental healthcare. More costly skincare, gyms. Better food.

The same reason middle aged and younger people are better off if they come from more monied and connected people - they have more money and connections.

Money buys better diet, better housing, better educational opportunities, better connections, better pensions etc. Unsurprisingly this comes with better average outcomes.

I imagine that having money means you eat better food, can take time off for illnesses, have access to private health care, can afford to prioritise themselves.

I think they have far more outlets for stress. They can afford therapy and personal trainers or gyms, yoga classes, weekends away with friends etc. Poor people tend to go for quick fix stress outlets: TV and food, cheap booze, vapes.

And the other way round…. If you have a disability or poor health, you are more likely to end up unable to work and skint.

I agree with all the above, I also think that long term good health starts in infancy, children with a good diet will have goods bones which helps a great deal in later life, the issues of growing up in poverty last a lifetime.

Better diet, better living conditions (warm damp free housing), better working conditions (not as physically hard on the body, not near nasty chemicals some of which are now banned)

You can unfortunately see poor diet reflected in a person. Particularly in school kids. I used to have folder with the photos of each class. It was very common to be able to pick out the poorer kids, even in identical school uniform.

Middle class jobs tend to cause less physical damage from standing all day, lifting, night shifts etc, and people with money can offset some of the damage by paying for extra leisure time, physiotherapy, medical care etc.

Better access to leisure, fitness, skincare, dentistry, healthy food etc.

Less stress. More free time and holidays.

Able to afford private healthcare before minor health problems become major.

Able to retire earlier.

They take better care of themselves, cook proper food, live a more active and varied lifestyle. Less likely to smoke/take drugs.

Less physical work and shorter working hours. I don't just mean, say, being a builder but even just manning a shop, bar etc you're on your feet all day.

More money (and time) for healthy leisure activities and hobbies in your time off - whereas when you're broke you're more likely to go for quicker and less healthy ways of winding down eg cigarettes and alcohol

Less stress - worrying about whether you can afford heating, clothes for the children and unexpected expenses as well as the rent.
Low income families are often working more hours or if not have someone who is too ill to work or a carer.

If you start off richer and become disabled you have more resources at least at the start to adapt and pay for care.

Although you often see on here that you can eat healthily cheaply (“just buy lentils not chips”) it takes more planning and definitely cook from scratch. It can be done and lots do, but do you blame someone buying cheap but fattier ready meals or chips.

@user73 I do wonder about this...I grew up poor as fuck, and was incredibly wan and sickly looking as a child/teenager to the point where teachers would ask my mum if I had a long term illness on parents evening.
Now I can afford a great diet, my teeth/skin/eyes/hair/general figure are all so much better. I'm also not surrounded by cigarette smoke, stress and cold conditions all the time. I sometimes see kids now who look like they are surviving on crisp sandwiches every day and it makes my heart ache, but I can't prove anything. It isn't talked about enough.

Im going to agree with most of whats said here except for the smoking/drugs. A LOT of the people I know who still do recreational drugs/drink lots and smoke in middle age are middle class…most of the working class people I know just cant afford to..

I work in an industry that involves alcohol and this is reflected there too…

Money

They won't admit this but...

An ingrained sense that letting standards go is OK for other people, but not for them. Huge amount of unspoken peer pressure and judgement of those who don't measure up.

The less stress - I'd have thought richer people had more demanding jobs / more responsibility say as managers / teachers / professions?

I totally get stress from being poor and worrying about money though.

Although you often see on here that you can eat healthily cheaply (“just buy lentils not chips”) it takes more planning and definitely cook from scratch. It can be done and lots do, but do you blame someone buying cheap but fattier ready meals or chips.
I think this also relies on you having had someone to teach you.
Whether working class or middle class, plenty of families would have cooked from scratch in the time before convenience food became so readily available.

I can't get the cuts of meat that I remember my mum cooking in stews for us as a child. I remember going to town to the market with my mum (think a proper town market with stuff people want, not farmers market with artisan sausage rolls and clean potatoes with some mud sprinkled on), but do the same now in a similar type of town and the butchers all say that hardly anyone buys those cuts now so they don't stock them.

If there's a generation gap of cooking skills then people are more likely to take the easier and less time consuming way out, especially if they have other pressures on time and money.

Also food, I'd say my diet was really good. We had home cooked fresh food every day. I very very rarely had a takeaway as a child. Junk we had a little in the house but not much. It was considered a luxury to buy.

1. Childhood nutrition
2. Not having to work 2 or 3 physically taxing jobs
3. Better housing
4. Not living with the constant stress of precarious finances
5. Having time & money to maintain appearance.

I don't think it's just money, but attitudes. I volunteered long term in a primary school that was smack bang in the middle of a MC area and a large council estate. I could have told you where a child lived just by what they did at the weekend. The MC spent time outdoors, even if it was just walking the dog locally or doing some gardening. Library attendance was also quite normal (the library was closer to council estate). The children in the estate stayed indoors watching TV or playing games consoles. Very few went to the library, and when they did it was alone. They had dogs too, but an activity of walking the dog together didn't seem to feature. A high % of their parents didn't work so it's not as if they were too busy. The dc were very much expected to entertain themselves.