title: Life-Course Socioeconomic Status and Metabolic Syndrome Among Midlife Women.
abstract: We examine whether women's risks of having metabolic syndrome (MetS) at pre/early-menopausal baseline, and of developing MetS after baseline, are associated with childhood and adult socioeconomic statuses (SESs); and whether the associations are mediated by adult reproductive, economic, behavioral, and psychosocial factors.
  
  
  
  Using data on white and black women collected prospectively for 12 years in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation, we estimated odds of MetS at pre/early-menopausal baseline with logistic regression, and incidence of MetS after baseline with Cox proportional hazards models.
  
  
  
  Women raised in "adverse" childhood SES had marginally greater odds of MetS at baseline than did women raised in "good" SES, and women with a high school credential or less had significantly greater odds than college-educated women, in mutually adjusted models. The elevated odds partly reflected SES-related differences in exercise and alcohol consumption. Incidence after baseline was associated with education, not childhood SES, and partly mediated by health behaviors. Differences in the probability of surviving without MetS between the most and least socioeconomically advantaged women nearly doubled between ages 50 and 60.
  
  
  
  Childhood and adult SES predict women's risks of MetS as they approach the menopause transition; adult SES is primarily important afterwards.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology and Aging Studies Institute, Syracuse University, New York. jmontez@maxwell.syr.edu.
authors.forename: Jennifer Karas
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Montez
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and.|Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Joyce T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Bromberger
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor.
authors.forename: Siobán D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Harlow
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and.|Department of Preventive Medicine, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois.
authors.forename: Howard M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Kravitz
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and.|Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Karen A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Matthews
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000069586:Adult Survivors of Child Adverse Events / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000375:Aging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008593:Menopause; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012923:Social Class; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D016387:Women's Health
keywords: Childhood; Education; Health; Inequality