title: Socioeconomic status and subclinical atherosclerosis in older adults.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study investigated the long-term effects of socioeconomic status (SES) on atherosclerosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data from the Epidemiology of Hearing Loss Study and the Beaver Dam Eye Study (Beaver Dam, WI, 1998-2000), were used to examine adult SES (education, household income, and longest-held job) and childhood SES (household density and parental home ownership at age 13) associations with carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and carotid plaque in a cohort of 2042 men and women aged 53 to 94 years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For education, income, and occupation (women), those in the lowest SES group had statistically larger age-sex-adjusted IMT than those in the highest SES group (<12 vs. >12 years education: 0.92 vs. 0.86 mm respectively, P<0.0001), (<$10,000 vs. >$45,000: 0.97 vs. 0.87 mm, P<0.0001), (operator/fabricator/labor vs. manager/professional: 0.89 vs. 0.82 mm, P<0.001). Associations were similar using carotid plaque as the outcome. Participants with low levels of both adult and childhood SES measures had age-sex-adjusted IMT greater than those with persistently high levels of SES (0.93 vs. 0.84 mm, P<0.0001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Measures of SES at two points in the life-span were associated with subclinical atherosclerosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53726-2336, USA. snash@wisc.edu
authors.forename: Scott D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Nash
authors.forename: Karen J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Cruickshanks
authors.forename: Ronald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: Barbara E K
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: F Javier
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Nieto
authors.forename: Carol D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Ryff
authors.forename: Elizabeth M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Krantz
authors.forename: Carla R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Shubert
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Nondahl
authors.forename: Charles W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Acher
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology; D002339:Carotid Arteries / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012923:Social Class; D014463:Ultrasonography