title: The Impact of Educational Attainment on Observed Race/Ethnic Disparities in Inflammatory Risk in the 2001-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
abstract: Inflammation has shown to be an independent predictor of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and growing evidence suggests Non-Hispanic Blacks (NHBs) and certain Hispanic subgroups have higher inflammation burden compared to Non-Hispanic Whites (NHWs). Socioeconomic status (SES) is a hypothesized pathway that may account for the higher inflammation burden for race/ethnic groups yet little is known about the biological processes by which SES "gets under the skin" to affect health and whether income and education have similar or distinct influences on elevated inflammation levels. The current study examines SES (income and education) associations with multiple levels of C-Reactive Protein (CRP), an important biomarker of inflammation, in a sample of 13,362 NHWs, 7696 NHBs and 4545 Mexican Americans (MAs) in the United States from the 2001 to 2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. After adjusting for age, sex, and statin use, NHBs and MAs had higher intermediate and high CRP levels compared to NHWs. Income lessened the magnitude of the association for both race/ethnic groups. The greater intermediate and high CRP burden for NHBs and MAs was strongly explained by educational attainment. MAs were more vulnerable to high CRP levels for the lowest (i.e., less than nine years) and post high school (i.e., associates degree) educational levels. After additional adjustment for smoking, heavy drinking, high waist circumference, high blood pressure, diabetes and statin use, the strength of the association between race/ethnicity and inflammation was reduced for NHBs with elevated intermediate (RR = 1.31; p ≤ 0.001) and high CRP levels (RR = 1.14; p ≤ 0.001) compared to NHWs but the effect attenuated for MAs for both intermediate (RR = 0.74; p ≤ 0.001) and high CRP levels (RR = 0.38; p ≤ 0.001). These findings suggest educational attainment is a powerful predictor of elevated CRP levels in race/ethnic populations and challenges studies to move beyond examining income as a better predictor in the SES-inflammation pathway.
authors.affiliation: African American Studies Department, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. gnieshad@umd.edu.|Maryland Population Research Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. gnieshad@umd.edu.
authors.forename: Gniesha Y
authors.initials: GY
authors.lastname: Dinwiddie
authors.affiliation: Women's Studies Department, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. rzambran@umd.edu.|Consortium on Race, Gender and Ethnicity, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. rzambran@umd.edu.
authors.forename: Ruth E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Zambrana
authors.affiliation: National Center for Health Research, Washington, DC 20036, USA. doamekpor3@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Lauren A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Doamekpor
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94121, USA. Lenny.Lopez@ucsf.edu.
authors.forename: Lenny
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lopez
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood*; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000032:analysis*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000208:ethnology*; D004522:Educational Status; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D007249:Inflammation / Q000208:ethnology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012923:Social Class; D014481:United States / Q000208:ethnology; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D002097:C-Reactive Protein
keywords: C-reactive protein; education; inflammation burden; race/ethnicity