Does childhood disadvantage lead to poorer health in second generation Irish people living in Britain?

Second generation Irish people living in Britain die earlier and have poorer mental and physical health than non-Irish people, despite improvements in social class over generations. They are Britain’s largest minority group, yet little is known about their early life experiences which might lead to poor health in adulthood. How far is the experience of growing up as second-generation Irish in Britain protective or harmful for adult health? Are second-generation Irish people more upwardly socially-mobile, and if so, is this less health-protective for them when compared to non-Irish people? Records spanning the lives of 17,000 babies born in a single week in 1958 and 1970, will be analysed. Early life risk factors predisposing to adult psychological illness, chronic illness, alcohol misuse, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure and smoking, will be analysed and compared between second-generation Irish and non-Irish people. This will hopefully provide insights into how Irish people differ in their early life chances compared with non-Irish British people, and how this might predispose to poorer adult health. The findings will possibly be of use to health and welfare agencies and potentially contribute to the development of early interventions supporting second-generation Irish and other migrant groups growing up in Britain.

Three decades of research has shown that Irish people living in Britain suffer elevated mortality and increased psychiatric morbidity, compared with the non-migrant British population and other migrant groups. These adverse health outcomes affect second and third generations, and are not fully explained by social class.

This study will use the National Child Development Survey (NCDS) and the 1970 British Birth Cohort (BCS70) to analyse the health of second generation Irish people born in Britain. Both cohorts surveyed 17,000 babies born in a single week in 1958 and 1970, and followed into adulthood. There are 627 cohort members who are second-generation Irish in the 1958 cohort, and 847 second-generation Irish people in the 1970 cohort. Prevalence rates of illness in adulthood (common mental disorders, alcohol misuse, self-reported longstanding illness, hypertension (NCDS); common mental disorders, hazardous alcohol use and self-reported longstanding illness (BCS70)) will be examined, alongside antecedent factors in childhood and early adulthood. Prevalence figures for these illnesses in adulthood will be compared to age and gender-adjusted rates from the Ethnicity Minority Psychiatric Illness Rates in the Community survey; a separate cross-sectional survey which interviewed 733 Irish respondents. Using a life-course approach, factors which might account for poorer health in adulthood amongst second-generation Irish people born in Britain will be examined, in particular: 1) Whether a concentration of adverse experiences in childhood amongst the children of Irish-born migrants predisposes to poorer health in adulthood; 2) Whether the effect of upward social mobility amongst Irish-descended people is less protective for adverse adult health outcomes, compared to non-Irish cohort members also upwardly socially mobile; 3) Whether tobacco use and hazardous alcohol use in adulthood is predicted by increased psychological morbidity across the life course, in Irish compared to non-Irish cohort members.

Logistic regression and structural equation modelling will be used to analyse the data.

The findings of this study will be of importance in elucidating early life factors impacting on the adult health of second-generation Irish people in Britain, and may also shed light on the health of other migrant groups living in Britain. Through this study it might be possible to begin to understand how adverse health may be ‘transmitted‘ across generations, amongst migrant groups living in Britain. This study will therefore enable the identification of earlier intervention time-points which could help in preventing adverse health outcomes in adulthood, amongst second generation migrant groups.