Life Course Patterns of Concurrent Trajectories of BMI and Affective Symptoms of Rural Mothers: Socioeconomic Antecedents and Disease Outcomes in Later Life

Objectives The current study, using prospective data over 25 years (1991–2015), concurrently investigates patterns of body mass index (BMI) and affective symptom trajectories in middle-aged mothers and the socioeconomic antecedents and disease outcomes of these patterns. Method Growth mixture modeling was used to identify latent classes of conjoint health risk trajectories (BMI, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms) from 1991 to 2001. For each latent class, we identified mean trajectories of each health risk. Then, analyses were conducted identifying how these conjoint health risk classes were associated with respondents’ socioeconomic background profiles in 1991 and subsequent chronic health problems in 2015. Results Socioeconomic background profiles were significantly associated with initially high-risk trajectories. There was a statistically significant association between membership in certain classes of conjoint trajectories and physical health outcomes in later years. Consistent patterns of association with changes in different health outcomes including onset of diseases were observed when classes of conjoint risk trajectories are examined. Discussion The identification of members of various conjoint risk trajectory groups provides a potentially useful prognostic tool for early preventive intervention efforts, treatment, and policy formation. Such interventions should promote and develop resiliency factors, thereby aiding in the redirection of middle-aged women’s adverse risk trajectories.