Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T18:56:13.890Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

DO BIOMARKERS VARY BY SOCIAL CLASS, EDUCATION AND REGION AND IS MIGRATION IMPORTANT? EVIDENCE FROM A COHORT OF BRITISH ADULTS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2018

Monika Krzyżanowska  and
C. G. Nicholas Mascie-Taylor
Monika Krzyżanowska*
Affiliation:
Department of Human Biology, University of Wrocław, Poland
C. G. Nicholas Mascie-Taylor
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, UK
*
1Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The aim of this study was to test whether Body Mass Index (BMI), waist circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, Forced Expiratory Volume (FEV1) and Peak Expiratory Flow (PEF) vary in relation to social class at birth and adulthood, educational level and region of residence, and also with inter-generational social, educational and regional mobility/migration. The study used 5702 adults (2894 males and 2718 females) from the longitudinal British National Child Development Study (all children born in England, Scotland and Wales during the first week in March 1958 with follow-up throughout childhood and adulthood, most recently at 55 years of age). In both sexes BMI and waist circumference tended to increase from social classes I+II to IV+V and higher social class was associated with higher mean FEV1 and PEF. Better-educated adults tended to have lower BMI and waist circumference, and higher mean FEV1 and PEF. Women from Wales had the highest mean BMI and waist circumference but the lowest mean PEF, while women in Scotland had the highest mean systolic blood pressure and the lowest mean FEV1. For men only, FEV1 and PEF showed regional variation and the lowest mean FEV1 was in Wales and the lowest PEF in Yorkshire & Humberside. Inter-generational social mobility was not found to be associated with any of the biomarkers, while educational mobility was related only to FEV1 and PEF. In both sexes, in unadjusted regression analysis regional migrant cohort members tended to have a lower mean BMI than sedentes. Regional male migrants also tended to have a lower waist circumference and a higher FEV1 and PEF than sedentes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , January 2019 , pp. 95 - 117
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press, 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amaranayake, N., Church, J., Hill, C., Jackson, J., Jackson, V., Myers, C. et al. (2000) Social Trends 30. URL: www.ons.gov.uk (accessed 23rd March 2016).Google Scholar
Atherton, K., Fuller, E., Shepherd, P., Strachan, D. P. & Power, C. (2008) Loss and representativeness in a biomedical survey at age 45 years: 1958 British birth cohort. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 62, 216–223.Google Scholar
Atherton, K. & Power, C. (2007) Health inequalities with the National Statistics-Socioeconomic classification: disease risk factors and health in the 1958 British birth cohort. European Journal of Public Health 17, 486–491.Google Scholar
Banks, J., Marmot, M., Oldfield, Z. & Smith, J. P. (2006) The SES Health Gradient on Both Sides of the Atlantic. Institute for Fiscal Studies, WP07/04, pp. 1–51.Google Scholar
Barker, D. J. P. (1994) Mothers, Babies and Disease in Later Life. BMJ Publishing Group, London.Google Scholar
Barker, D. J. P., Winter, P. D., Osmond, C., Margets, B. & Simmonds, S. J. (1989) Weight in infancy and death from ischaemic heart disease. Lancet 334(8663), 577–580.Google Scholar
Bauldry, S. (2014) Conditional health-related benefits of higher education: an assessment of compensatory versus accumulative mechanisms. Social Science & Medicine 111, 94–100.Google Scholar
Ben-Shlomo, Y. & Davey Smith, G. (1991) Deprivation in infancy or adult life: which is more important for mortality risk? Lancet 337, 530–534.Google Scholar
Bhatnagar, P., Wickramasinghe, K., Williams, J., Rayner, M. & Townsend, N. (2015) The epidemiology of cardiovascular disease in the UK 2014. Heart 101, 1182–1189.Google Scholar
Blane, D., Hart, C. L., Davey Smith, G., Gillis, C. R., Hole, D. J. & Hawthorne, V. M. (1996) Association of cardiovascular disease risk factors and socioeconomic position during childhood and during adulthood. British Medical Journal 313, 1434–1438.Google Scholar
Braddon, F. E., Rodgers, B., Wadsworth, M. E. & Davies, J. M. (1986) Onset of obesity in a 36 year birth cohort study. British Medical Journal (Clinical Research Edition) 293, 299–303.Google Scholar
Buchan, I. E., Kontopantelis, E., Sperrin, M., Chandola, T. & Doran, T. (2017) North–South disparities in English mortality 1965–2015: longitudinal population study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, doi: 10.1136/jech-2017-209195.Google Scholar
Bucher, H. C. & Ragland, D. R. (1995) Socioeconomic indicators and mortality from coronary heart disease and cancer: a 22-year follow-up of middle-aged men. American Journal of Public Health 85, 1231–1236.Google Scholar
Cardoso, H. F. V. & Caninas, M. (2010) Secular trends in social class differences of height, weight and BMI of boys from two schools in Lisbon, Portugal (1910–2000). Economics and Human Biology 8, 111–120.Google Scholar
Case, A., Fertig, A. & Paxson, C. (2005) The lasting impact of childhood health and circumstance. Journal of Health Economics 24, 365–389.Google Scholar
Cavaco, S., Eriksson, T. & Skalli, A. (2014) Life cycle development of obesity and its determinants in six European countries. Economics and Human Biology 14, 62–78.Google Scholar
Chandola, T., Deary, I. J., Blane, D. & Batty, G. D. (2006) Childhood IQ in relation to obesity and weight gain in adult life: the National Child Development (1958) Study. International Journal of Obesity 30, 1422–1432.Google Scholar
Clark, D. & Royer, H. (2010) The effect of education on adult health and mortality: evidence from Britain. NBER Working Paper No. 16013.Google Scholar
Cleland, V. J., Ball, K., Magnussen, C., Dwyer, T. & Venn, A. (2009) Socioeconomic position and the tracking of physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness from childhood to adulthood. American Journal of Epidemiology 170, 1069–1077.Google Scholar
Davey Smith, G., Hart, C., Hole, D., MacKinnon, P., Gillis, C., Watt, G. et al. (1998) Education and occupational social class: which is the more important indicator of mortality risk? Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 52, 153–160.Google Scholar
Elford, H., Phillips, A. N., Thomson, A. G. & Shaper, A. G. (1990) Migration and geographic variations in blood pressure in Britain. British Medical Journal 300, 291–295.Google Scholar
Ellis, A. & Fry, R. (2010) Regional health inequalities in England. Regional Trends 42, 60–79.Google Scholar
Gall, S. L., Abbott-Chapman, J., Patton, G. C., Dwyer, T. & Venn, A. (2010) Intergenerational educational mobility is associated with cardiovascular disease risk behaviours in a cohort of young Australian adults: The Childhood Determinants of Adult Health (CDAH) Study. BMC Public Health 10, 55.Google Scholar
Goldblatt, P. (1990) Mortality and alternative social classifications. In Goldblatt, P. (ed.) Longitudinal Study: Mortality and Social Organisation. HMSO, London. pp. 163–192.Google Scholar
Goldthorpe, J. H. (2016) Social class mobility in modern Britain: changing structure, constant process. Journal of the British Academy 4, 89–111.Google Scholar
Hegewald, M. J. & Crapo, R. O. (2007) Socioeconomic status and lung function. Chest 132, 1608–1614.Google Scholar
Heraclides, A., Witte, D. & Brunner, E. J. (2008) The association between father’s social class and adult obesity is not explained by educational attainment and an unhealthy lifestyle in adulthood. European Journal of Epidemiology 23, 573–579.Google Scholar
Hermann, S., Rohrmann, S., Linseisen, J. et al. (2011) The association of education with body mass index and waist circumference in the EPIC-PANACEA study. BMC Public Health 11, 169.Google Scholar
Högberg, L., Cnattingius, S., Lundholm, C., Sparen, P. & Iliadou, A. N. (2012) Intergenerational social mobility and the risk of hypertension. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 66, e9.Google Scholar
Kaplan, G. A., Shema, S. J. & Leite, C. M. (2008) Socioeconomic determinants of psychological well-being: the role of income, income change, and income sources during the course of 29 years. Annals of Epidemiology 18, 531–537.Google Scholar
Kivimäki, M., Lawlor, D. A., Davey Smith, G., Keltikangas-Järvinen, L., Elovainio, M., Vahtera, J. et al. (2006) Early socioeconomic position and blood pressure in childhood and adulthood. The cardiovascular risk in Young Finns Study. Hypertension 47, 39–44.Google Scholar
Krzyżanowska, M. & Mascie-Taylor, C. G. N. (2011) Geographical variation and migration analysis of height, weight and body mass index in a British cohort study. Journal of Biosocial Science 43, 733–749.Google Scholar
Kuntz, B. & Lampert, T. (2013) Educational differences in smoking among adolescents in Germany: what is the role of parental and adolescent education levels and intergenerational educational mobility? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 10, 3015–3032.Google Scholar
Lahmann, P. H., Lissner, L., Gullberg, B. & Berglund, G. (2000) Sociodemographic factors associated with long-term weight gain, current body fatness and central adiposity in Swedish women. International Journal of Obesity 24, 685–694.Google Scholar
Langenberg, C., Hardy, R., Kuh, D., Brunner, E. & Wadsworth, M. (2003) Central and total obesity in middle aged men and women in relation to lifetime socioeconomic status: evidence from a national birth cohort. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 57, 816–822.Google Scholar
Lewis, G. & Booth, M. (1992) Regional differences in mental health in Great Britain. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 46, 608–611.Google Scholar
Lifestyles Statistics Team, Health and Social Care Information Centre (2015) Statistics on Obesity, Physical Activity and Diet: England. NHS Digital, publication date 3rd March 2015.Google Scholar
Link, B. G., Phelan, J. C., Miech, R. & Westin, E. L. (2008) The resources that matter: fundamental social causes of health disparities and the challenge of intelligence. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour 49, 72–91.Google Scholar
Loucks, E. B., Abrahamowicz, M., Xiao, Y. & Lynch, J. W. (2011) Associations of education with 30 year life course blood pressure trajectories: Framingham Offspring Study. BMC Public Health 11, 139.Google Scholar
McLaren, L. (2007) Socioeconomic status and obesity. Epidemiological Review 29, 29–48.Google Scholar
Marmot, M. G. (2017) Social justice, epidemiology and health inequalities. European Journal of Epidemiology 32, 537–546.Google Scholar
Marmot, M. G., Smith, G. D., Stansfeld, S., Patel, C., North, F., Head, J. et al. (1991) Health inequalities among British Civil Servants: the Whitehall II study. Lancet 337, 1387–1393.Google Scholar
Martikainen, P., Ishizaki, M., Marmot, M. G., Nakagawa, H. & Kagamimori, S. (2001) Socioeconomic differences in behavioural and biological risk factors: a comparison of a Japanese and an English cohort of employed men. International Journal of Epidemiology 30, 833–838.Google Scholar
Masters, R. K., Hummer, R. A. & Powers, D. A. (2012) Educational differences in U.S. adult mortality: a cohort perspective. American Sociological Review 77, 548–572.Google Scholar
Matthews, S., Manor, O. & Power, C. (1999) Social inequalities in health: are there gender differences? Social Science & Medicine 48, 49–60.Google Scholar
Mirowsky, J. & Ross, C. E. (2003) Education, Social Status and Health. Aldine de Gruyter, New York.Google Scholar
Montez, J. K. & Friedman, E. M. (2015) Educational attainment and adult health: under what conditions is the association causal? Social Science & Medicine 127, 1–7.Google Scholar
Montez, J. K. & Hayward, M. D. (2014) Cumulative childhood adversity, educational attainment, and active life expectancy among U.S. adults. Demography 51, 413–435.Google Scholar
Moser, K., Pugh, H. & Goldblatt, P. (1990) Mortality and the social classification of women. In Goldblatt, P. (ed.) Longitudinal Study: Mortality and Social Organisation. HMSO, London. pp. 145–162.Google Scholar
Mostafa, T. (2016) Attrition in NCDS. Webinar: Introduction to the National Child Development Study. Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of Education, University College London, URL: www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/ncdswebinar16 (accessed 31st May 2016).Google Scholar
Novak, M., Ahlgren, C. & Hammarstrom, A. (2012) Social and health-related correlates of intergenerational and intragenerational social mobility among Swedish men and women. Public Health 126, 349–357.Google Scholar
Okasha, M., McCarron, P., McEwen, J., Durnin, J. & Davey Smith, G. (2003) Childhood social class and adulthood obesity: findings from the Glasgow Alumni Cohort. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 57, 508–509.Google Scholar
Ostrove, J. M. & Adler, N. E. (1998) The relationship of socioeconomic status, labour force participation, and health among men and women. Journal of Health Psychology 3, 451–463.Google Scholar
Pinto Pereira, S. M. & Power, C. (2013) Life course body mass index, birthweight and lipid levels in mid-adulthood: a nationwide birth cohort study. European Heart Journal 34, 1215–1224.Google Scholar
Plewis, I., Calderwood, L., Hawkes, D. & Nathan, G. (2004) National Child Development Study and 1970 British Cohort Study Technical Report: Changes in the NCDS and BCS70 Populations and Samples over Time. Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Bedford Group for Lifecourse and Statistical Studies, Institute of Education, University of London, ISBN 1 898453 49 7.Google Scholar
Powdthavee, N. (2010) Does education reduce the risk of hypertension? Estimating the biomarker effect of compulsory schooling in England. Journal of Human Capital 4, 173–202.Google Scholar
Power, C., Atherton, K., Strachan, D. P., Shepherd, P., Fuller, E., Davis, A. et al. (2007) Life-course influences on health in British adults: effects of socioeconomic position in childhood and adulthood. International Journal of Epidemiology 36, 532–539.Google Scholar
Power, C. & Elliott, J. (2006) Cohort profile: 1958 British birth cohort (National Child Development Study). International Journal of Epidemiology 35, 34–41.Google Scholar
Power, C., Fogelman, K. & Fox, A. J. (1986) Health and social mobility during the early years of life. Quarterly Journal of Social Affairs 2, 397–413.Google Scholar
Power, C., Jefferis, B. J. M. H. & Manor, O. (2010) Childhood cognition and risk factors for cardiovascular disease in midadulthood: the 1958 British birth cohort study. American Journal of Public Health 100, 129–136.Google Scholar
Power, C., Manor, O. & Matthews, S. (1999) The duration and timing of exposure: effects of socioeconomic environment on adult health. American Journal of Public Health 89, 1059–1065.Google Scholar
Power, C., Manor, O. & Matthews, S. (2003) Child to adult socioeconomic conditions and obesity in a national cohort. International Journal of Obesity 27, 1081–1086.Google Scholar
Power, C. & Matthews, S. (1997) Origins of health inequalities in a national population sample. Lancet 350, 1584–1589.Google Scholar
Power, C., Matthews, S. & Manor, O. (1996) Inequalities in self-rated health in the 1958 birth cohort: lifetime social circumstances or social mobility? British Medical Journal 313, 449–453.Google Scholar
Prescott, E., Lange, P., Vestbo, J. & The Copenhagen City Heart Study Group (1999) Socioeconomic status, lung function and admission to hospital for COPD: results from the Copenhagen City Heart Study. European Respiratory Journal 13, 1109–1114.Google Scholar
Rahkonen, O., Arber, S. & Lahelma, E. (1997) Health-related social mobility. A comparison of currently employed men and women in Britain and Finland. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 25, 83–92.Google Scholar
Rentfrow, P. J., Jokela, M. & Lamb, M. E. (2015) Regional personality differences in Great Britain. PLoS One 10(3), e0122245.Google Scholar
Ross, C. E. & Mirowsky, J. (2006) Sex differences in the effect of education on depression: resource multiplication or resource substitution? Social Science & Medicine 63, 1400–1413.Google Scholar
Sánchez-Vaznaugh, E. V., Kawachi, I., Subramanian, S. V., Sánchez, B. N. & Acevedo-Garcia, D. (2009) Do socioeconomic gradients in body mass index vary by race/ethnicity, gender, and birthplace? American Journal of Epidemiology 169, 1102–1112.Google Scholar
Shaper, A. G., Ashby, D. & Pocock, S. J. (1988) Blood pressure and hypertension in middle-aged British men. Journal of Hypertension 6(5), 367–374.Google Scholar
Shaper, A. G. & Elford, J. (1991) Place of birth and adult cardiovascular disease: the British Regional Heart Study. Acta Paediatrica Scandinavica (Supplement) 373, 73–81.Google Scholar
Shohaimi, S., Welch, A., Bingham, S., Luben, R., Day, N., Wareham, N. & Khaw, K.-T. (2004) Area deprivation predicts lung function independently of education and social class. European Respiratory Journal 24, 157–161.Google Scholar
Silles, M. A. (2009) The causal effect of education on health: Eevidence from the United Kingdom. Economics of Education Review 28, 122–128.Google Scholar
Strachan, D. P., Leon, D. A. & Dodgeon, B. (1995) Mortality from cardiovascular disease among interregional migrants in England and Wales. British Medical Journal 310(6977), 423–427.Google Scholar
Strachan, D. P., Rudnicka, A. R., Power, C., Shepherd, P., Fuller, E., Davis, A. et al. (2007) Lifecourse influences on health among British adults: effects of region of residence in childhood and adulthood. International Journal of Epidemiology 36, 522–531.Google Scholar
Strand, B. H. & Tverdal, A. (2006) Trends in educational inequalities in cardiovascular risk factors: a longitudinal study among 48,000 middle-aged Norwegian men and women. European Journal of Epidemiology 21, 731–739.Google Scholar
Theodossiou, I. & Zangelidis, A. (2009) The social gradient in health: the effect of absolute income and subjective social status assessment on the individual’s health in Europe. Economics and Human Biology 7, 229–237.Google Scholar
Thurston, R. C., Kubzansky, L. D., Kawachi, I. & Berkman, L. F. (2005) Is the association between socioeconomic position and coronary heart disease stronger in women than in men? American Journal of Epidemiology 162, 57–65.Google Scholar
Tiikkaja, S. & Hemström, Ö. (2008) Does intergenerational social mobility among men affect cardiovascular mortality? A population-based register study from Sweden. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 36, 619–628.Google Scholar
van de Mheen, H., Stronks, K., Looman, C. W. N. & Mackenbach, J. P. (1998) Does childhood socioeconomic status influence adult health through behavioural factors? International Journal of Epidemiology 27, 431–437.Google Scholar
Wadsworth, M. E. J. (1997) Health inequalities in the life course perspective. Social Science & Medicine 44, 859–869.Google Scholar
Wannamethee, S. G., Shaper, A. G., Whincup, P. H. & Walker, M. (2002) Migration within Great Britain and cardiovascular disease: early life and adult environmental factors. International Journal of Epidemiology 31, 1054–1060.Google Scholar
Wannamethee, G., Whincup, P., Shaper, G. & Walker, M. (1996) Influence of father’s social class on cardiovascular disease in middle-aged men. Lancet 348, 1259–1263.Google Scholar
White, I., Blane, D., Morris, J. & Mourouga, P. (1999) Educational attainment, deprivation-affluence and self-reported health in Britain: a cross-sectional study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 53, 535–541.Google Scholar
Winkleby, M. A., Kraemer, H. C., Ahn, D. K. & Varadu, A. N. (1998) Ethnic and socioeconomic differences in cardiovascular disease risk factors: findings for women from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988–1994. Journal of the American Medical Association 280, 356–362.Google Scholar
Valkonen, T. (1987) Male mortality from ischaemic heart disease in Finland: relation to region of birth and region of residence. European Journal of Population 3, 61–83.Google Scholar
Yarnell, J., Yu, S., McCrum, E., Arveiler, D., Hass, B., Dallongeville, J. et al. (2005) Education, socioeconomic and lifestyle factors, and risk of coronary heart disease: the PRIME Study. International Journal of Epidemiology 34, 268–275.Google Scholar
Zheng, H. & Tumin, D. (2015) Variation in the effects of family background and birth region on adult obesity: results of a prospective cohort study of a Great Depression-era American cohort. BMC Public Health, doi: 10.1186/s12889-015-1870-7.Google Scholar