IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v127y2015icp143-149.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A blunted diurnal cortisol response in the lower educated does not explain educational differences in coronary heart disease: Findings from the AGES-Reykjavik Study

Author

Listed:
  • Groffen, Daniëlle A.I.
  • Bosma, Hans
  • Koster, Annemarie
  • von Bonsdorff, Mikaela B.
  • Aspelund, Thor
  • Eiriksdottir, Gudny
  • Penninx, Brenda W.J.H.
  • Kempen, Gertrudis I.J.M.
  • Kirschbaum, Clemens
  • Gudnason, Vilmundur
  • Harris, Tamara B.

Abstract

Lower educational attainment generally is a strong predictor of coronary heart disease (CHD). The underlying mechanisms of this effect are, however, less clear. One hypothesis is that stress related to limitations imposed by lower socioeconomic status elicits changes in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning, which, in turn, increases risk of CHD. In a large cohort study, we examined whether educational attainment was related to risk of fatal and non-fatal CHD and the extent to which salivary cortisol mediated this relation independent of potential confounders, including lifestyles. Data came from 3723 participants aged 66 through 96 from the Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility (AGES) – Reykjavik Study. Between 2002 and 2006, data were collected using questionnaires and examinations including morning and evening salivary samples. Hospital admission records and cause of death registries (ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes) were available until December 2009. Linear regression and Cox proportional hazards analyses were performed. Even after adjustment for potential confounders, including lifestyle, persons with lower educational attainment showed a blunted cortisol response and also greater risk of incident CHD. However, our data did not support the role of cortisol as a mediator in the association between education and CHD in an older sample (192).

Suggested Citation

  • Groffen, Daniëlle A.I. & Bosma, Hans & Koster, Annemarie & von Bonsdorff, Mikaela B. & Aspelund, Thor & Eiriksdottir, Gudny & Penninx, Brenda W.J.H. & Kempen, Gertrudis I.J.M. & Kirschbaum, Clemens & , 2015. "A blunted diurnal cortisol response in the lower educated does not explain educational differences in coronary heart disease: Findings from the AGES-Reykjavik Study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 143-149.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:127:y:2015:i:c:p:143-149
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.09.050
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953614006170
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.09.050?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Seeman, Teresa E. & Crimmins, Eileen & Huang, Mei-Hua & Singer, Burton & Bucur, Alexander & Gruenewald, Tara & Berkman, Lisa F. & Reuben, David B., 2004. "Cumulative biological risk and socio-economic differences in mortality: MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(10), pages 1985-1997, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bann, David & Hardy, Rebecca & Cooper, Rachel & Lashen, Hany & Keevil, Brian & Wu, Frederick C.W. & Holly, Jeff M.P. & Ong, Ken K. & Ben-Shlomo, Yoav & Kuh, Diana, 2015. "Socioeconomic conditions across life related to multiple measures of the endocrine system in older adults: Longitudinal findings from a British birth cohort study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 190-199.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Seeman, Melvin & Stein Merkin, Sharon & Karlamangla, Arun & Koretz, Brandon & Seeman, Teresa, 2014. "Social status and biological dysregulation: The “status syndrome” and allostatic load," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 143-151.
    2. Keiichi Shimatani & Mayuko T. Komada & Jun Sato, 2021. "Impact of the Changes in the Frequency of Social Participation on All-Cause Mortality in Japanese Older Adults: A Nationwide Longitudinal Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Szanton, Sarah L. & Thorpe, Roland J. & Whitfield, Keith, 2010. "Life-course financial strain and health in African-Americans," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 259-265, July.
    4. Gruenewald, Tara L. & Karlamangla, Arun S. & Hu, Perry & Stein-Merkin, Sharon & Crandall, Carolyn & Koretz, Brandon & Seeman, Teresa E., 2012. "History of socioeconomic disadvantage and allostatic load in later life," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 75-83.
    5. Shawna Beese & Julie Postma & Janessa M. Graves, 2022. "Allostatic Load Measurement: A Systematic Review of Reviews, Database Inventory, and Considerations for Neighborhood Research," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-23, December.
    6. Goldman, Noreen & Turra, Cassio M. & Rosero-Bixby, Luis & Weir, David & Crimmins, Eileen, 2011. "Do biological measures mediate the relationship between education and health: A comparative study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 307-315, January.
    7. Margie E Lachman & Stefan Agrigoroaei, 2010. "Promoting Functional Health in Midlife and Old Age: Long-Term Protective Effects of Control Beliefs, Social Support, and Physical Exercise," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(10), pages 1-9, October.
    8. Davillas, Apostolos & Pudney, Stephen, 2020. "Using biomarkers to predict healthcare costs: Evidence from a UK household panel," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    9. Davillas, Apostolos & Jones, Andrew M, 2020. "Ex ante inequality of opportunity in health, decomposition and distributional analysis of biomarkers," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    10. Davillas, Apostolos & Pudney, Stephen, 2020. "Biomarkers as precursors of disability," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    11. Vincenzo Carrieri & Apostolos Davillas & Andrew M. Jones, 2020. "A latent class approach to inequity in health using biomarker data," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(7), pages 808-826, July.
    12. Hannes Kröger & Rasmus Hoffmann, 2018. "The association between CVD-related biomarkers and mortality in the Health and Retirement Survey," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 38(62), pages 1933-2002.
    13. Vie, Tina Løkke & Hufthammer, Karl Ove & Holmen, Turid Lingaas & Meland, Eivind & Breidablik, Hans Johan, 2014. "Is self-rated health a stable and predictive factor for allostatic load in early adulthood? Findings from the Nord Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT)," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 1-9.
    14. Seeman, Teresa & Merkin, Sharon S. & Crimmins, Eileen & Koretz, Brandon & Charette, Susan & Karlamangla, Arun, 2008. "Education, income and ethnic differences in cumulative biological risk profiles in a national sample of US adults: NHANES III (1988-1994)," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 72-87, January.
    15. Turner, R. Jay & Thomas, Courtney S. & Brown, Tyson H., 2016. "Childhood adversity and adult health: Evaluating intervening mechanisms," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 114-124.
    16. Lipowicz, Anna & Szklarska, Alicja & Mitas, Andrzej W., 2016. "Biological costs of economic transition: Stress levels during the transition from communism to capitalism in Poland," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 90-99.
    17. Todd, Megan A. & Shkolnikov, Vladimir M. & Goldman, Noreen, 2016. "Why are well-educated Muscovites more likely to survive? Understanding the biological pathways," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 138-147.
    18. Kröger, Hannes & Hoffmann, Rasmus, 2018. "The Association between Cvd-Related Biomarkers and Mortality in the Health and Retirement Survey," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 38, pages 1933-2002.
    19. Michaud, Pierre-Carl & Crimmins, Eileen M. & Hurd, Michael D., 2016. "The effect of job loss on health: Evidence from biomarkers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 194-203.
    20. Eileen M. Crimmins & Sarinnapha Vasunilashorn & Jung Ki Kim & Aaron Hagedorn & Yasuhiko Saito, 2008. "A Comparison of Biological Risk Factors in Two Populations: The United States and Japan," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 34(3), pages 457-482, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:127:y:2015:i:c:p:143-149. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.