The emergence of health inequalities in early adulthood: evidence on timing and mechanisms from a West of Scotland cohort

Table 2 No morbidity, longstanding limiting physical illness only, poor mental health only or both at each age^a

	Age 15		Age 18		Age 24^b		Age 30		Age 36
	N	(%)	N	(%)	N	(%)	N	(%)	N	(%)
Neither	974	(69.6)	716	(54.0)	287	(43.9)	391	(49.1)	453	(49.0)
LL physical illness only	79	(5.6)	72	(5.4)	57	(8.7)	80	(10.0)	105	(11.4)
Poor mental health only	295	(21.1)	462	(34.9)	242	(37.0)	247	(31.0)	243	(26.3)
Both	51	(3.6)	75	(5.7)	68	(10.4)	79	(9.9)	124	(13.4)

^aAnalysis requires valid data on both longstanding limiting physical illness and poor mental health, thus numbers do not exactly tally with those in Table 1.
^bLevels of missingness on poor mental health are high at age 24 because a portion of the sample only received a postal questionnaire that did not include the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) instrument.

ISSN: 1471-2458