Drawing on life course theory and research, we explored how socioeconomic circumstances during childhood and adulthood shape self-reported health trajectories among older Mexican adults. We used data from the Mexican Health and Aging Study panel survey (2001–2015) and used sequence analysis to estimate types of self-reported health trajectories in older adulthood. We then explored the association between those health trajectories and socioeconomic determinants at different life stages, including education, occupation, employment, economic status, parental education, and adverse living conditions and illnesses during childhood. Our contributions are threefold. First, we identified four types of health trajectories for men and eight for women, representing a more nuanced longitudinal health status profile than previously shown. Second, we found that childhood and adult socioeconomic circumstances influence self-reported health trajectories at older age. Third, our results suggest there is no simple monotonic relationship between life course circumstances and self-reported health trajectories.

借鉴生命历程理论和研究，我们探讨了童年和成年时期的社会经济环境如何影响墨西哥老年人自我报告的健康轨迹。我们使用墨西哥健康与老龄化研究小组调查（2001-2015）的数据，并使用序列分析来估计老年人自我报告的健康轨迹类型。然后，我们探讨了这些健康轨迹与不同生命阶段的社会经济决定因素之间的关系，包括教育、职业、就业、经济状况、父母教育以及儿童时期不良的生活条件和疾病。我们的贡献是三重的。首先，我们确定了男性的四种健康轨迹和女性的八种健康轨迹，代表了比之前显示的更细致的纵向健康状况概况。其次，我们发现童年和成人的社会经济环境影响老年时自我报告的健康轨迹。第三，我们的结果表明生命历程环境与自我报告的健康轨迹之间不存在简单的单调关系。