Parental education and lung function of children in the PATY study.
Studies of the relationships between low socio-economic status and impaired lung function were conducted mainly in Western European countries and North America. East-West differences remain unexplored. Associations between parental education and lung function were explored using data on 24,010 school-children from eight cross-sectional studies conducted in North America, Western and Eastern Europe. Parental education was defined as low and high using country-specific classifications. Country-specific estimates of effects of low parental education on volume and flow parameters were obtained using linear and logistic regression, controlling for early life and other individual risk factors. Meta-regressions were used for assessment of heterogeneity between country-specific estimates. The association between low parental education and lung function was not consistent across the countries, but showed a more pronounced inverse gradient in the Western countries. The most consistent decrease associated with low parental education was found for peak expiratory flow (PEF), ranging from -2.80 to -1.14%, with statistically significant associations in five out of eight countries. The mean odds ratio for low PEF (<75% of predicted) was 1.34 (95% CI 1.06-1.70) after all adjustments. Although social gradients were attenuated after adjusting for known risk factors, these risk factors could not completely explain the social gradient in lung function.
Slachtova
Hana
H
Center of Health Services, Institute of Public Health, Partyzanske nam. 7, 702 00 Ostrava, Czech Republic. hana.slachtova@zu.cz
Gehring
Ulrike
U
Hoek
Gerard
G
Tomaskova
Hana
H
Luttmann-Gibson
Heike
H
Moshammer
Hanns
H
Paldy
Anna
A
Pattenden
Sam
S
Slotova
Katarina
K
Speizer
Frank
F
Zlotkowska
Renata
R
Heinrich
Joachim
J
D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005060:Europe; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000502:physiology*; D009656:North America; D010290:Parents; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests; D012923:Social Class