title: Individual/neighborhood social factors and blood pressure in the RECORD Cohort Study: which risk factors explain the associations?
abstract: Recent studies have started to suggest that, beyond effects of individual socioeconomic profiles, socioeconomic characteristics of residential neighborhoods are independently associated with blood pressure. However, mechanisms involved in these associations remain unknown. To distinguish between different mechanisms, we investigated whether specific risk factors of hypertension (physical inactivity, alcohol consumption, smoking, body mass index, waist circumference, and resting heart rate) intervene as mediators in the associations between individual or neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics and systolic blood pressure. We relied on data from the RECORD Cohort Study (Residential Environment and CORonary heart Disease) on 5941 participants recruited in 2007-2008, aged 30 to 79 years, residing in 1824 neighborhoods in the Paris metropolitan area. Systolic blood pressure increased independently and regularly with both decreasing individual education and decreasing residential neighborhood education. Body mass index/waist circumference and resting heart rate mediated an appreciable share of the associations between education and blood pressure and, adding validity to the finding, were the 2 most significant mediators for the effects of both individual education and neighborhood education. We found that 52% (95% CI: 25% to 79%) of the association between neighborhood education and blood pressure was mediated by body mass index/waist circumference and 20% (95% CI: 5% to 36%) by resting heart rate. Future research will have to clarify the exact mechanisms through which body weight and shape and resting heart rate intervene as mediators in the associations between individual/neighborhood education and blood pressure.
authors.affiliation: Inserm U707, Faculté de Médecine Saint-Antoine, 27 rue Chaligny, 75012 Paris, France. chaix@u707.jussieu.fr
authors.forename: Basile
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chaix
authors.forename: Kathy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bean
authors.forename: Cinira
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Leal
authors.forename: Frédérique
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Sabrina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Havard
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: Bertrand
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jégo
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pannier
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology; D001794:Blood Pressure; D015992:Body Mass Index; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012307:Risk Factors; D057185:Sedentary Behavior; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology; D055105:Waist Circumference