Childhood Poverty Grows into Adult Heart Disease

Childhood Poverty Grows into Adult Heart Disease - CME Teaching Brief® - MedPage Today: ", Nov. 27 -- A poor childhood more than doubles the risk of early heart disease among white male physicians who achieve a high socioeconomic status, found researchers here. Action Points

Explain to patients who ask that this study suggests that relative poverty in childhood has a persistent effect and increases the risk of heart disease as adults among white male physicians who achieve high socioeconomic status.


Point out that this increased risk is not mediated by established coronary heart disease risk factors.
The finding, based on a long-running prospective study of the precursors of heart disease, underlines the persistent effect of relative poverty on children's future health, according to Michelle Kittleson, M.D., Ph.D., of Johns Hopkins.
Interestingly, the effect appears to moderate over time, as other risk factors for coronary heart disease begin to predominate with increasing age, Dr. Kittleson (now at the UCLA) and colleagues reported in the Nov. 27 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.
Dr. Kittleson and colleagues analyzed data from the John Hopkins Precursors Study, which enrolled graduates of the university's medical school between 1948 and 1964. Median follow-up has reached 40 years.
The cohort was valuable to examine the effects of childhood socioeconomic status, Dr. Kittleson and colleagues said, because it eliminated a key adult confounding effect. All of the participants went on to enjoy the income and professional status of physicians.
For this analysis, the researchers excluded female graduates, those of non-European background, those who did not provide information about parental occupation, and those who were unavailable for follow-up, leaving 1,131 volunteers."