A Prospective Study of Childhood and Adult Socioeconomic Status and Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes in Women

J Lidfeldt,I Kawachi,F B Hu,T Y Li,J E Manson

doi:10.1093/aje/kwk078

J Lidfeldt, I Kawachi + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwk078

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Abstract

The influence of childhood socioeconomic status (SES) on incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus has not previously been studied. The authors prospectively examined the association of childhood SES (father's occupation) with incidence of diabetes in 100,330 US women who were followed from 1980 to 2002. In 55,115 of those women, 10-year follow-up data (1992-2002) were also available on adult SES (spouse's education). In all, 6,916 new cases of type 2 diabetes were documented. Compared with women from white-collar occupational backgrounds, the multivariate-adjusted risks of diabetes were 1.08 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.95, 1.23) among women whose fathers were laborers and 1.10 (95% CI: 1.03, 1.16) among women whose fathers were blue-collar or lower white-collar workers. Lower adult SES was associated with risk of diabetes independently of childhood SES. Compared with women whose spouses had graduate degrees, women whose spouses were high school graduates had a 1.16 times higher risk of incident diabetes (95% CI: 1.04, 1.29), while women whose spouses had college degrees were at 1.14 times the risk (95% CI: 1.01, 1.29). Compared with women with stable high SES from childhood to adulthood, women with declining SES had a 1.18 times higher risk of incident diabetes (95% CI: 1.06, 1.32). Higher body mass index among women with lower SES accounted for much of these rather modest associations between childhood and adult SES and risk of diabetes.

Highlights

A Prospective Study of Childhood and Adult Socioeconomic Status and Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes in Women
100,330 women were included in the analyses of childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and diabetes incidence (1980–2002), while 55,115 married or widowed women were included in the analyses of adult SES and diabetes (1992–2002)
Compared with women with stable high SES, women with stable intermediate SES (RR 1⁄4 1.21, 95 percent confidence interval (CI): 1.06, 1.38) or declining SES (RR 1⁄4 1.18, 95 percent CI: 1.06, 1.32) had an increased risk of diabetes in adulthood. We found that both low childhood SES and low adult SES were associated with increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes among women

Summary

Introduction

A Prospective Study of Childhood and Adult Socioeconomic Status and Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes in Women. The influence of childhood socioeconomic status (SES) on incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus has not previously been studied. The authors prospectively examined the association of childhood SES (father’s occupation) with incidence of diabetes in 100,330 US women who were followed from 1980 to 2002. Lower adult SES was associated with risk of diabetes independently of childhood SES. Higher body mass index among women with lower SES accounted for much of these rather modest associations between childhood and adult SES and risk of diabetes. A follow-up of the Alameda County Study cohort in the United States showed that education, income, and occupation were associated with increased diabetes risk in unadjusted models but not in multivariate-adjusted models [6]

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