title: Relationship of socioeconomic status to C-reactive protein and arterial stiffness in urban Japanese civil servants.
abstract: This study investigates whether the two socioeconomic status indicators, educational level and employment grade, are associated with C-reactive protein (CRP) levels and arterial stiffness among Japanese urban civil servants. Brachial-ankle pulse-wave velocity (baPWV) as an indicator of arterial stiffness, CRP, occupational stress and conventional risk factors were evaluated in 3412 men and 854 women. Although the socioeconomic gradient showed a significant association with the CRP levels in men after adjustment for age, the significance disappeared after multivariate adjustment, whereas in women, the socioeconomic gradient showed no significant association with the CRP levels. In men, educational level was significantly associated with the baPWV value after adjustment for conventional risk factors, CRP and occupational stress (P for trend <0.0001). With regards to employment grade, only low-level non-manual workers had a significantly lower baPWV value as compared to manual workers at a fully adjusted model, and trend significance disappeared. However, in women, neither educational level nor employment grade was associated with the baPWV value. In summary, the socioeconomic gradient, especially the educational level, was significantly inversely related to the baPWV value in men. In women, the socioeconomic gradient was not related to the baPWV value. An inverse relationship between the socioeconomic gradient and CRP levels was found in men only after age adjustment. We suggest that because the educational level is an important aspect in the adolescent environment and hence might influence the future lifestyle, early health education should be provided to prevent an unfavourable lifestyle and atherosclerotic diseases in later life.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Science, Asahikawa Medical College, Midorigaoka E2-1-1-1, Asahikawa, Hokkaido 078-8510, Japan. y-saijo@asahikawa-med.ac.jp
authors.forename: Yasuaki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Saijo
authors.forename: Eiji
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yoshioka
authors.forename: Tomonori
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fukui
authors.forename: Mariko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kawaharada
authors.forename: Reiko
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kishi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D001794:Blood Pressure; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000032:analysis*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D007564:Japan; D009111:Local Government; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010991:Plethysmography; D012737:Sex Factors; D012923:Social Class; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D002097:C-Reactive Protein