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.

@theduchessofspork Indeed and a lot of middle class jobs have some sort of healthcare cover.

I can't afford to go totally private but my free work goup health cover gives me things like access to free private physio and scans etc..

I think this is often overlooked at frequently denied factor - also I think services in middle class areas get protected more because they do complain when they come under risk of cuts.

I grew up on a council estate but was outside playing all the time, food was bad though mostly from freezer shops and I literally ate "tinned salad" in the summer. Things like chips and cola or sweets were an affordable treat because they couldn't afford other things for us. My Dad is fit though, doesn't drink or smoke although my mum did. I went veggie at 10 and learned to cook my own food, also never drank or smoked.

I went to university and married a working class uni graduate who is fit and only drinks a couple of beers on a Saturday night, we eat a veggie diet and exercise together throughout the week. I think we both look well and are healthy by comparison to our peers regardless to economic background.

I know loads of properly middle class people from university who have been or are smokers, drug takers, and heavy drinkers. One friend of mine a doctor no less drinks at least a six pack of beer every night and didn't visit a dentist for about 15 years, and I went to a concert a few years ago where a friend of a friend, an anaesthesiologist was dropping E and he was about 40 at the time!

I would say that even at uni a difference I noticed was that middle class girls even in the 90's seemed to care about "skincare" and preventing wrinkles over and above make up. While the girls I knew back home didn't bother too much about looking after their skin for the future and loved make up the most. I think that has changed now though.

My family are all still pretty working class and my friends are mostly middle class and to be honest I don't see too much difference in how they have all aged to be honest maybe working class people tend to be a bit heavier but I see worse drinking problems in my middle class friends and those people don't look great. I also think that although not having money worries is great, that professional, well paid jobs are often really stressful ( so are working class jobs but I think they are often easier to forget about out of hours).

In regards to access to health care I do think being articulate and understanding how things work does make a difference to the care you get and middle class people or those with doctors as friends or family who can explain to them how the NHS works are more likely to get better care. Even just knowing to look up the nice guidelines and seeing how they apply to you and your issue gives you an inside knowledge that helps you navigate the system better.

Lower levels of smoking
better diet
more likely to access primary care and advocate for themselves
much more likely to engage in preventative healthcare

for those who are less well off
language barriers. Less likely to speak English if first generation
digital exclusion and so many things are done online
lower levels of literacy makes it harder to acess information
Likely to present with health concerns much later
higher levels of obesity which leads to higher risk of diabetes and heart disease

also middle class more likely to have private healthcare or an ability to pay for various treatments physio etc. no waiting around for hip replacements, back operations, knee treatments. They’re all done and dusted quickly and back to normal where people without access are still waiting for first appointments

I'm not sure if this is across the UK but in my city a scheme was launched where if you had certain health problems (diabetes, MH issues etc) and on benefits or low income you could register for free membership of city council leisure centres. Loads of facilities, pools, sauna, gym, pilates, yoga etc. The uptake was so low though that they stopped it.

@feralunderclass If people are not fit, have anxiety and have never really used those kinds of facilities before they probably need more than financial help to start using a gym or attending fitness classes. Its a good idea of course but probably needs more intervention that would be too costly to provide.

@StarTrek6 I have to say I haven't really noticed that myself while visiting Australia rather that even at a young age start to look much older due to sun damaged skin. Perhaps there are just more fit one's where you are about but a tan isn't a sign of health.

Well this boomer ain't healthy...NHS cock ups years ago.🙄

If someone has been capable and is driven enough to get a career with good pay, promotions etc, they are probably also driven enough to eat pretty well, 5 a day fruit and veg, exercise etc.

Conversely, if someone has struggled to succeed in work, found succeeding financially etc difficult then they may also make poor health choices, eat junk, not bother to walk daily etc.

Of course this is simplified and lots of nuances, but being successful in life is often in multiple areas and not just one.

Another middle class health benefit - we get a subsidised canteen at work and a lot of the food is freshly prepared and cooked - jacket potaotes, soups, salads etc.. . as well as main hot meals. So I can have a freshly cooked hot lunch for £3.75.

More money to spend on good food, nicer environments to exercise in, and again, money to spend on it, better 'health literacy' and more chance of accessing decent primary care because of living in areas where surgeries are not overloaded. Also option to go private. Decent housing without damp which leads to long term health problems. Money to spend on looking good even when you don't feel good.

On every single one of those playdates - and I mean EVERY SINGLE ONE - they were given chicken nuggets for their tea, except for the Italian families (catholic school so lots of Italians) who fed them proper food.

@NotSuchASmugMarried this means absolutely nothing. When faced with another child coming to tea, you go for the option you know the other child is most likely to eat . In our house it meant I offered cheese & tomato pizza in case the other child didn't near meat. Didn't mean that's what we ate every day .

Totally get this, but do you think that's what happens in Italy, France and most of the rest of Europe? Or could you reasonably assume that a visiting child would be able to eat what the host family would normally have? When I was young in the 1960s there wasn't really the same culture of giving children different food from adults. The assumption was we would all eat the same. There were children (and adults) who were fussy eaters (I had two cousins in that category), admittedly.

It's called inequalities in health and has been extensively researched. If you're interested, Google the Marmot Report and Mazlo's higherarchy of needs.

Especially when you can't really afford to be feeding somebody else's child as well.

DD2 had a bunch of friends who were happy to eat a bowl of rice, peas, spices, spring onion, garlic, prawns, salmon and white fish (which sounds expensive but with the amount of rice it involved wasn't that bad when catering for several kids) - plus ice cream and a couple of cookies each - but she still had friends who wouldn't eat anything like that.

DD1, however, had a best friend who 'was scared of fish', two who wouldn't eat anything that wasn't beige or had things touching one another on a plate/were wet and by 15, a boyfriend who could eat three meals in 4 hours, complained constantly of being hungry and then buy himself chicken and chips on his way home for his tea.

And whilst they'd both eat a lot of foods that others wouldn't, neither liked peppers, carrots, cheese, eggs, baked beans, visible onion or sweet potatoes (I didn't push it because hey, they'd eat Seabass in a tomato and courgette or broccoli sauce with boiled potatoes, potato/chicken curry, or home fried chicken on the bone, they're allowed to genuinely not like something) and DD1 was lactose intolerant, but both would definitely eat nuggets and chips or MccyDs (no cheese, DD1 picking out the pickle) without complaint.

So somebody else hosting them would be safer doing nuggets and chips than anything better/fancier in case it was wasted - and I wouldn't have dreamed of expecting another parent to faff around finding something that would be more 'approved by Mumsnet' or what I'd normally give them when they were also perfectly happy with something that didn't require anything in the way of culinary ability.

Is junk food cheap though? I bought a bag of chicken ball things recently (admittedly they were 100% fillet) and they were more expensive than 1kg of meat. The same with pizza and oven chips. I haven't bought the latter in years and was really shocked that a bag of oven chips in Iceland were £2.75. Pizza was also really expensive - unless you are buying one pizza per family, for a family of four you'd need a tenner to feed them pizza and chips. I could make a simple homemade meal with either mince or chicken for less and it's so much more nutritious.

My siblings and cousins live in France, Spain and Italy and while they don't serve chicken nuggets, they serve a variety of bland beige meals for fussy children. And the Italian kids and teens wolf down sausage and chips pizza.

Yeah, Italian toddlers (including my 3 year old) eat a lot of pasta al burro and pasta al pomodoro. Its not exactly varied! We also have biscuits for breakfast so although Italy is pretty good healthy eating wise its not perfect.

Having said that pastina (also beloved of Italian toddlers) manages to be both beige and boring, and super healthy if you make your own broth.

I think on the most part it's to do with less stress. If you're comfortably well off then life is a peach. You're less likely to have done any physical work and you can afford private healthcare when illness occurs. Better diets, gym membership, relaxing holidays all play a part.

Bad things still happen to those who are comfortably well off. Death, affairs, childhood cancer, incurable genetic diseases. Whilst money might make these things a bit more bearable, I don't think it necessarily makes it "a peach".

Ok life isn't completely dandy if you have money but I know most of my own problems could be solved with the funds. Certainly a headstart with health.

Sure, breathing in coal dust, or asbestos, or organophosphates all day, or gutting fish in a freezing warehouse is so much better for you than sitting in an office.

Everyone going on about diet and access to gyms and ignoring the fact that elderly working class people were exposed to horrendous working conditions, many of them suffered from life changing industrial accidents and many have life limiting conditions due to exposure to toxic and carcinogenic chemicals.

Even if they didn't do horrible factory jobs the chemical cleaners and hairdressers are exposed to plus the literal shit that railway workers were exposed to is life limiting.

Oh and that's ignoring the fact the poorer you are the more likely you and your children are going to life in a place with polluted air. Air pollution stints children's lung size and adults are more likely to have cardiovascular disease.

Basically your job and your home environment decreases your lifespan.

It starts in childhood;

better nutrition

better housing (I ended up with asthma from the house I lived in as a baby- it was so bad the doctor wrote a letter to get us moved)

less physically demanding jobs (also true for children, I and most people I know who started paper rounds as soon as we were old enough have bad shoulders/backs)

more likely to seek medical help as they can afford to take the time (my dad used to work his holidays rather than take them so he could be paid twice for the holiday weeks, he ended up with a stomach ulcer, it ruptured, without him going to the doctor, it was only when it healed over and re-ruptured he ended up in a&e and had an operation to remove most of his stomach lining, same he died of cancer, by the time he went to the doctors it was too big)

more time to look after themselves, not having to work every hour to pay the rent/bills

more financial security means less stress about bills etc (I know some jobs are very stressful, which is true for all classes)

more time, working class are often time poor as well as money poor, meaning less time to cook, take care of the house, and themselves (exercise etc)

working class often start working younger, in more physically demanding jobs, and continue working for longer. There’s only so much a body can take

There was a study done I Ireland about 20 yrs ago, Frances Fitzgerald if googling, and I remember in social studies class that it was not the children at the bottom of financial food chain who were the fattest. That group cannot afford enough takeaways to get fat. It was the next step up the ladder that got fat, mam and dad both working flat out to bring in about 1200 net per week, lots of bills but exhausted, driving everywhere. I identified myself on that "rung" but I sank a social step!! My parents' unspoken rule that greed is bad, fast food is bad, being fat is bad permeated my consciousness.
When I had nothing to spare but arguably, I had juuuust enough, I went to school reunions with old peers much higher up the economic ladder, so goddammit all I had was that I was not overweight too, ykwim