Journal
CIRCULATION
Volume 111, Issue 23, Pages 3071-3077Publisher
LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS
DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.104.497347
Keywords
disparities; metabolism; psychosocial factors; social factors; stress
Funding
- Medical Research Council [G0100222, G19/35, G8802774] Funding Source: researchfish
- AHRQ HHS [5 R01 HS06516] Funding Source: Medline
- Medical Research Council [G0100222, G8802774, G19/35] Funding Source: Medline
- NHLBI NIH HHS [2R01 HL-36310] Funding Source: Medline
- NIA NIH HHS [R01 AG13196-02] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Background - Laboratory and clinical studies suggest that the autonomic nervous system responds to chronic behavioral and psychosocial stressors with adverse metabolic consequences and that this may explain the relation between low social position and high coronary risk. We sought to test this hypothesis in a healthy occupational cohort. Methods and Results - This study comprised 2197 male civil servants 45 to 68 years of age in the Whitehall II study who were undergoing standardized assessments of social position ( employment grade) and the psychosocial, behavioral, and metabolic risk factors for coronary disease previously found to be associated with low social position. Five-minute recordings of heart rate variability (HRV) were used to assess cardiac parasympathetic function (SD of N-N intervals and high-frequency power [0.15 to 0.40 Hz]) and the influence of sympathetic and parasympathetic function (low-frequency power [0.04 to 0.15 Hz]). Low employment grade was associated with low HRV (age-adjusted trend for each modality, P <= 0.02). Adverse behavioral factors ( smoking, exercise, alcohol, and diet) and psychosocial factors ( job control) showed age-adjusted associations with low HRV (P < 0.03). The age-adjusted mean low-frequency power was 319 ms(2) among those participants in the bottom tertile of job control compared with 379 ms2 in the other participants (P = 0.004). HRV showed strong (P < 0.001) linear associations with components of the metabolic syndrome ( waist circumference, systolic blood pressure, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and fasting and 2-hour postload glucose). The social gradient in prevalence of metabolic syndrome was explained statistically by adjustment for low-frequency power, behavioral factors, and job control. Conclusions - Chronically impaired autonomic function may link social position to different components of coronary risk in the general population.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available