Lifecourse Socioeconomic Position, C-Reactive Protein, and Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in Young Adults

OBJECTIVE: It has been suggested that confounding by socioeconomic position from across the lifecourse together with adult risk factors explain the association between C-reactive protein (CRP) and coronary heart disease, but the evidence for this is limited to elderly subjects. We examined associations between socioeconomic position in childhood and adulthood, adult CRP, and carotid intima-media thickness (IMT), a presymptomatic predictor of coronary heart disease, in a population of young adults. METHODS AND RESULTS: The association of socioeconomic indicators at age 3 to 18 and in adulthood with CRP and IMT at age 24 to 39 were examined in a prospective cohort study of 2290 (1030 men and 1260 women) participants in the Young Finns Study. After adjustment for age and sex, both childhood and adulthood socioeconomic position were inversely associated with CRP (ps< or =0.02). There was also a direct correlation between CRP and IMT (P<0.008). However, both the association between socioeconomic position and CRP and that between CRP and IMT attenuated to the null with adjustment for BMI and waist-to-hip ratio. Controlling for other risk factors had little effect on these associations. CONCLUSIONS: In young adults, the interrelations between socioeconomic position, CRP, and carotid atherosclerosis are accounted for by adiposity.