Low Socioeconomic Status not Linked With Risk of Heart Disease
Reported July 22, 2005
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Wealth does not necessarily equate good health, according to researchers from the United Kingdom. The results of this study question the common view that children with difficult socioeconomic conditions have an increased risk of heart disease later in life.
Researchers randomly selected 3,189 school children from one wealthy nation — Denmark — and two disadvantaged nations — Estonia and Portugal. Insulin resistance, a typical indicator of heart disease, was measured in each of the children, along with many other health factors such as height, weight, blood pressure and waist circumference.
An inverse relationship was found between family income and parental education with insulin resistance in Danish children. Those children coming from the most educated and wealthy families were the least insulin resistant. In contrast, the opposite was found in Estonian and Portuguese children who had well-educated parents.
Researchers say it is possible that higher insulin resistance among children of well-educated parents in Estonia and Portugal is the result of embracing Western lifestyle. However, the authors of an accompanying editorial question the idea that Western “junk” food is producing a pattern of high insulin resistance among the wealthiest children. Instead, they say this study shows the socioeconomical inequality among different countries vary over time.
SOURCE: British Medical Journal, 2005;331:183-187