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Association of Inflammatory Markers With Socioeconomic Status

¹ Department of Health Care Studies, Section Medical Sociology, Universiteit Maastricht, The Netherlands.
² Department of Psychiatry, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
³ Department of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
⁴ Laboratory of Epidemiology, Demography and Biometry, National Institute on Aging, Bethesda, Maryland.
⁵ Clinical Research Branch, National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, Maryland.
⁶ Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.
⁷ Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis.
⁸ Department of Sociology, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio.
⁹ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco.
¹⁰ Sticht Center on Aging, Section on Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Address correspondence to Annemarie Koster, PhD, Universiteit Maastricht, Department of Health Care Studies, Section of Medical Sociology, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands. E-mail: a.koster{at}zw.unimaas.nl

Background. This study examines the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and inflammatory markers in well-functioning older adults and seeks to determine whether any association remains after adjusting for biomedical and behavioral factors typically related to elevated serum levels of inflammatory markers.

Methods. Data were obtained from 3044 men and women, aged 70–79 from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Memphis, Tennessee participating in the Health, Aging and Body Composition study. Three indicators of SES were used: education, income, and ownership of financial assets. Serum levels of interleukin-6, C-reactive protein, and tumor necrosis factor- were measured.

Results. Low SES was associated with significantly elevated levels of interleukin-6, C-reactive protein, and tumor necrosis factor- compared to high SES. Behavioral factors (including smoking, drinking, obesity) explained a substantial part of the inverse association between SES and inflammatory markers. Adjustment for prevalent diseases (including heart diseases, lung disease, and diabetes) associated with inflammation explained less of the association.

Conclusions. This study suggests that interventions to improve health behaviors, even in old age and especially in low SES groups, may be useful in reducing risks associated with inflammation.