Abstract P004: Higher Socioeconomic Position Strengthens Intergenerational Transmission of Ideal Health Behaviors

Abstract

Introduction: Promoting ideal health behaviors is an objective of the AHA 2020 goals. We assessed the hypothesis that ideal health behaviors transmit from one generation to the next and that higher socioeconomic position (SEP) in parents and their adult offspring promotes intergenerational transmission of ideal health behaviors. Methods: Data were from the intergenerational Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study. We included 1857 participants who had repeated measures of educational attainment (as a proxy for SEP) and smoking status, BMI, physical activity and diet recorded in 2001, 2007 and 2011. Parental educational attainment and health behaviors were collected in 1980. We categorized data on health behaviors as ideal vs non-ideal (1/0) using AHA definitions of ideal cardiovascular health. The number of ideal health behaviors (0 to 4) was treated as a continuous outcome. The number of parental heath behaviors (0 to 8; each parent contributing equally) was the primary exposure. Intergenerational associations and interactions with SEP were examined in linear multilevel regression with random intercepts applicable to longitudinal data, adjusting for sex, study year, age, single-parent family and parental education. Results: Participants were 55% women; in 2001, mean age was 31.1 (SD, 5.0) and mean number of ideal health behaviors 2.0 (SD, 1.1). Overall, the adjusted mean number of ideal health behaviors increased with the number of parental ideal health behaviors, from 1.7 (95% CI, 1.6-1.7) to 2.1 (95% CI, 2.0-2.2) among participants with parents in the lowest vs highest 20% of ideal health behaviors. The increments were greater for those with higher levels of education (interaction p=.004) or those whose parents had higher levels of education (p=.007) ( Figure ). Conclusions: In this prospective study, higher number of ideal health behaviors in parents was associated with higher number of ideal health behaviors in offspring. Higher SEP in either generation strengthened the protective intergenerational associations.