Wear and tear
Job Authority and Breast Cancer
Tetyana Pudrovska
Social Forces, forthcoming
Abstract:
Using the 1957-2011 data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, I integrate the gender relations theory, a life course perspective, and a biosocial stress perspective to explore the effect of women's job authority in 1975 (at age 36) and 1993 (at age 54) on breast cancer incidence up to 2011. Findings indicate that women with the authority to hire, fire, and influence others' pay had a significantly higher risk of a breast cancer diagnosis over the next thirty years compared to housewives and employed women with no job authority. Because job authority conferred the highest risk of breast cancer for women who also spent more hours dealing with people at work in 1975, I suggest that the assertion of job authority by women in the 1970s involved stressful interpersonal experiences, such as social isolation and negative social interactions, that may have increased the risk of breast cancer via prolonged dysregulation of the glucocorticoid system and exposure of breast tissue to the adverse effects of chronically elevated cortisol. This study contributes to sociology by emphasizing gendered biosocial pathways through which women's occupational experiences become embodied and drive forward physiological repercussions.
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Expressive Writing and Wound Healing in Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Heidi Koschwanez et al.
Psychosomatic Medicine, forthcoming
Objective: To investigate whether expressive writing could speed wound reepithelialization in healthy, older adults.
Methods: In this randomized controlled trial, 49 healthy older adults aged 64 to 97 years were assigned to write for 20 minutes a day either about upsetting life events (Expressive Writing) or about daily activities (Time Management) for 3 consecutive days. Two weeks postwriting, 4-mm punch biopsy wounds were created on the inner, upper arm. Wounds were photographed routinely for 21 days to monitor wound reepithelialization. Perceived stress, depressive symptoms, health-related behaviors, number of doctor visits, and lipopolysaccharide-stimulated proinflammatory cytokine production were also measured throughout the study.
Results: Participants in the Expressive Writing group had a greater proportion of fully reepithelialized wounds at Day 11 postbiopsy compared with the Time Management group, with 76.2% versus 42.1% healed, χ2(1, n = 40) = 4.83, p = .028. Ordinal logistic regression showed more sleep in the week before wounding also predicted faster healing wounds. There were no significant group differences in changes to perceived stress, depressive symptoms, health-related behaviors, lipopolysaccharide-induced proinflammatory cytokine production, or number of doctor visits over the study period.
Conclusions: This study extends previous research by showing that expressive writing can improve wound healing in older adults and women. Future research is needed to better understand the underlying cognitive, psychosocial, and biological mechanisms contributing to improved wound healing from these simple, yet effective, writing exercises.
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The Nonequivalent Health of High School Equivalents
Anna Zajacova & Bethany Everett
Social Science Quarterly, forthcoming
Objectives: Millions of U.S. adults are recipients of the high school (HS) equivalency (General Education Development [GED]) diploma. Virtually nothing is known about the health of this large group, although literature suggests GED recipients are considerably worse off than HS graduates in numerous economic and social outcomes. We analyze general health among working-age adults with a HS diploma, GED recipients, and HS dropouts.
Methods: Ordered and binary logistic models of self-rated health and activity limitations were estimated using data from the 1997-2009 National Health Interview Surveys (N = 76,703).
Results: GED recipients have significantly and substantially worse health than HS graduates, among both sexes. In fact, the GED recipients' health is generally comparable to that of HS dropouts. Health behaviors and economic factors explain a large proportion of the difference but the gap remains significant.
Conclusions: In terms of health, adults with a terminal GED are not equivalent to HS graduates. GED recipients report considerably worse general health and activity limitations. The disadvantage is only partly due to the worse economic outcomes and health behaviors; a significant difference remains unexplained and may be due to other, unobserved pathways, or to selection mechanisms.
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Michelle Short et al.
Health Education & Behavior, June 2013, Pages 323-330
Study Objective: To test whether sleep duration on school nights differs between adolescents in Australia and the United States and, if so, whether this difference is explained by cultural differences in school start time, parental involvement in setting bedtimes, and extracurricular commitments.
Participants: Three hundred eighty-five adolescents aged 13 to 18 years (M = 15.57, SD = 0.95; 60% male) from Australia and 302 adolescents aged 13 to 19 years (M = 16.03, SD = 1.19; 35% male) from the United States.
Methods: Adolescents completed the School Sleep Habits Survey during class time, followed by an 8-day sleep diary.
Results: After controlling for age and gender, Australian adolescents obtained an average of 47 minutes more sleep per school night than those in the United States. Australian adolescents were more likely to have a parent-set bedtime (17.5% vs. 6.8%), have a later school start time (8:32 a.m. vs. 7:45 a.m.), and spend less time per day on extracurricular commitments (1 h 37 min vs. 2 h 41 min) than their U.S. peers. The mediating factors of parent-set bedtimes, later school start times, and less time spent on extracurricular activities were significantly associated with more total sleep.
Conclusions: In addition to biological factors, extrinsic cultural factors significantly affect adolescent sleep. The present study highlights the importance of a cross-cultural, ecological approach and the impact of early school start times, lack of parental limit setting around bedtimes, and extracurricular load in limiting adolescent sleep.
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Maternal Dietary Fat Intake in Association With Autism Spectrum Disorders
Kristen Lyall et al.
American Journal of Epidemiology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Our goal in this study was to determine whether maternal fat intake before or during pregnancy was associated with risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the offspring. Our primary analysis included 317 mothers who reported a child with ASD and 17,728 comparison mothers from the Nurses' Health Study II (index births in 1991-2007). Dietary information was collected prospectively through a validated food frequency questionnaire. Binomial regression was used to estimate crude and adjusted risk ratios. Maternal intake of linoleic acid was significantly inversely associated with ASD risk in offspring, corresponding to a 34% reduction in risk in the highest versus lowest quartiles of intake. Mothers in the lowest 5% of ω-3 fatty acid intake had a significant increase in offspring ASD risk as compared with the remaining distribution (risk ratio = 1.53, 95% confidence interval: 1.00, 2.32); this association was also seen in the subgroup of women (86 cases and 5,798 noncases) for whom dietary information during pregnancy was available (risk ratio = 2.42, 95% confidence interval: 1.19, 4.91). Thus, variations in intake of polyunsaturated fats within the range commonly observed among US women could affect fetal brain development and ASD risk. Because the number of women with diet assessed during pregnancy was small, however, these results should be interpreted cautiously.
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Explaining the Widening Education Gap in Mortality among U.S. White Women
Jennifer Karas Montez & Anna Zajacova
Journal of Health and Social Behavior, June 2013, Pages 166-182
Abstract:
Over the past half century the gap in mortality across education levels has grown in the United States, and since the mid-1980s, the growth has been especially pronounced among white women. The reasons for the growth among white women are unclear. We investigated three explanations - social-psychological factors, economic circumstances, and health behaviors - for the widening education gap in mortality from 1997 to 2006 among white women aged 45 to 84 years using data from the National Health Interview Survey Linked Mortality File (N = 46,744; 4,053 deaths). Little support was found for social-psychological factors, but economic circumstances and health behaviors jointly explained the growing education gap in mortality to statistical nonsignificance. Employment and smoking were the most important individual components. Increasing high school graduation rates, reducing smoking prevalence, and designing work-family policies that help women find and maintain desirable employment may reduce mortality inequalities among women.
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Exercise holds immediate benefits for affect and cognition in younger and older adults
Candice Hogan, Jutta Mata & Laura Carstensen
Psychology and Aging, June 2013, Pages 587-594
Abstract:
Physical activity is associated with improved affective experience and enhanced cognitive processing. Potential age differences in the degree of benefit, however, are poorly understood because most studies examine either younger or older adults. The present study examined age differences in cognitive performance and affective experience immediately following a single bout of moderate exercise. Participants (144 community members aged 19 to 93) were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions: (a) exercise (15 min of moderate intensity stationary cycling) or (b) control (15 min completing ratings of neutral IAPS images). Before and after the manipulation, participants completed tests of working memory and momentary affect experience was measured. Results suggest that exercise is associated with increased levels of high-arousal positive affect (HAP) and decreased levels of low-arousal positive affect (LAP) relative to control condition. Age moderated the effects of exercise on LAP, such that younger age was associated with a drop in reported LAP postexercise, whereas the effects of exercise on HAP were consistent across age. Exercise also led to faster RTs on a working memory task than the control condition across age. Self-reported negative affect was unchanged. Overall, findings suggest that exercise may hold important benefits for both affective experience and cognitive performance regardless of age.
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Bethany Wexler Rainisch & Dawn Upchurch
Journal of Adolescent Health, forthcoming
Purpose: There is growing evidence that racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic status (SES) differentials in health emerge early in life. This study provided a descriptive profile of allostatic load (AL) among adolescents, focusing on sociodemographic correlates and variation in age patterns of AL by race and ethnicity. Allostatic load, an index of cumulative physiological dysregulation, is a construct that measures how individuals' interactions with their environment "get under the skin" to influence health.
Methods: We used data from 8,052 adolescents ages 12-19 years, from the United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2008. A summary measure of AL was assessed with biomarkers representing cardiovascular, inflammatory, and metabolic systems. Weighted univariate, bivariate, and multivariable negative binomial regression statistics were employed.
Results: Mean AL increased with age, was higher for blacks than whites or Mexican-Americans, and was higher among adolescents of lower SES. Although black adolescents had higher AL for all ages, the relative advantage of whites and Mexican-Americans declined with age.
Conclusions: Racial and SES inequalities in AL exist during adolescence. These findings contribute to the understanding of how early life adverse factors "get under the skin," and are potentially translated into disease outcomes and health disparities later in life.
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Socioeconomic Status Gradients in Inflammation in Adolescence
Stefanie Pietras & Elizabeth Goodman
Psychosomatic Medicine, June 2013, Pages 442-448
Objective: To determine whether lower socioeconomic status (SES), broadly defined, is associated with increased inflammation in adolescence and whether adiposity mediates these relationships.
Methods: Fasting blood samples from 941 non-Hispanic black and white adolescents enrolled in a suburban, Midwestern school district were assayed for proinflammatory biomarkers (interleukin-6 [IL-6], tumor necrosis factor α soluble receptor 2 fibrinogen). A parent reported objective SES (parent education [E1 ≤ high school, E2 = some college, E3 = college graduate, E4 = professional degree], household income), and youth perceived SES (PSES). Multivariable linear regressions assessed the relationship of SES measures to biomarkers adjusting for age, race, sex, and puberty status. In the final step, body mass index (BMI) z score (BMIz) was added to models, and Sobel tests were performed to assess mediation by adiposity.
Results: Parent education was inversely associated with IL-6 (βE1 = .11, βE2 = .10, βE3 = .02; p < .001). This association was attenuated but remained significant after BMIz adjustment (p = .01). Sobel testing confirmed BMIz's partial mediating role (p < .001). Parent education was also inversely associated with sTNFR2 (βE1 = .03, βE2 = .02, βE3 = .001; p = .01); this relationship was mediated by BMIz. Although no main effect was noted for PSES, PSES by race interactions was observed for sTNFR2 (p = .02) and IL-6 (p = .06). High PSES was associated with lower sTNFR2 and IL-6 for white but not black youth. There were no associations with household income.
Conclusions: Social disadvantage, specifically low parent education, is associated with increased inflammation in adolescence. Adiposity explains some but not all associations, suggesting that other mechanisms link lower SES to inflammation. High PSES is associated with lower inflammation for white but not black youth.
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Objective and Subjective Socioeconomic Gradients Exist for Sleep in Children and Adolescents
Denise Jarrin, Jennifer McGrath & Elizabeth Quon
Health Psychology, forthcoming
Objective: Socioeconomic position (SEP) is inversely associated with many health outcomes, yielding a socioeconomic gradient in health. In adults, low SEP is associated with short sleep duration, poorer sleep quality, and difficulty initiating and maintaining sleep. Relatively little is known about this relation in youth. The aim of the present study was to examine whether socioeconomic gradients exist for various sleep indices among a healthy sample of children and adolescents.
Method: Participants took part in the larger Healthy Heart Project and included 239 youth (69.6% Caucasian; 45.6% female), aged 8-17 years (M = 12.6, SD = 1.9). Parental income and education were used to measure objective SEP. The Subjective Social Status Scale-Youth Version was used to measure subjective SEP. Sleep duration, sleep quality, daytime sleepiness, and sleep disturbances were assessed through self- and parent-report.
Results: In children, objective SEP was related with sleep duration (β = .35, p < .01), although subjective SEP was related with daytime sleepiness (βavg = .33, p < .01) and parent-reported sleep duration (β = .23, p < .05). In adolescents, subjective SEP was related with sleep quality (β = .28, p < .01) and parent-reported sleep duration (β = -.18, p < .05), even after controlling for objective SEP.
Conclusions: Socioeconomic gradients were observed for multiple sleep measures in youth. Objective parental SEP was related with sleep complaints (e.g., sleep disturbances), and subjective SEP was related with sleep quality and daytime sleepiness. Findings suggest sleep may be one pathway underlying the socioeconomic gradient in health. Future research should aim to elucidate how distinct sleep constructs may explain how socioeconomic status "gets under the skin" to affect health.
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Cheryl Clark et al.
PLoS ONE, May 2013
Objective: We examined associations between neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage, perceived neighborhood safety and cardiometabolic risk factors, adjusting for health behaviors and socioeconomic status (SES) among African Americans.
Methods: Study participants were non-diabetic African Americans (n = 3,909) in the baseline examination (2000-2004) of the Jackson Heart Study. We measured eight risk factors: the metabolic syndrome, its five components, insulin resistance and cardiovascular inflammation. We assessed neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage with US Census 2000 data. We assessed perceived neighborhood safety, health behaviors and SES via survey. We used generalized estimating equations to estimate associations with a random intercept model for neighborhood effects.
Results: After adjustment for health behaviors and SES, neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage was associated with the metabolic syndrome in women (PR 1.13, 95% CI 1.01, 1.27). Lack of perceived safety was associated with elevated glucose (OR 1.36, 95% CI 1.03, 1.80) and waist circumference (PR 1.06, 95% CI 1.02, 1.11) among women, and with elevated glucose (PR 1.30, 95% CI 1.02, 1.66) and insulin resistance (PR 1.25, 95% CI 1.08, 1.46) among men.
Conclusions: Neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage and perceived safety should be considered as targets for intervention to reduce cardiometabolic risks among African Americans.
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Trends in Health, Education and Income in the United States, 1820-2000
Hoyt Bleakley, Dora Costa & Adriana Lleras-Muney
NBER Working Paper, June 2013
Abstract:
We document the correlations between early childhood health (as proxied by height) and educational attainment and investigate the labor market and wealth returns to height for United States cohorts born between 1820 and 1990. The 19th century was characterized by low investments in height and education, a small correlation between height and education, and positive but small returns for both height and education. The relationship between height and education was stronger in the 20th century and stronger in the first part of the 20th century than later on (when both investments in education and height stalled), but never as strong as in developing countries. The labor market and wealth returns to height and education also were higher in the 20th compared to the 19th century. We relate our findings to the theory of human capital formation and speculate that the greater importance of physical labor in the 19th century economy, which raised the opportunity cost of schooling, may have depressed the height-education relationship relative to the 20th century. Our findings are consistent with an increasing importance of cognitive abilities acquired in early childhood.
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Jane Ruseski & Katerina Maresova
Contemporary Economic Policy, forthcoming
Abstract:
Many countries promote participation in physical activity among its citizens. We undertake an international comparative analysis of participation using data from 34 countries in the 2007 International Social Survey Programme Leisure Time and Sports module, augmented with country-specific characteristics capturing economic freedom and national sport policy. Gross domestic product per capita and economic freedom are associated with higher physical activity participation; past success of the national team in the Olympics is associated with lower participation, but hosting sports mega-events is associated with higher participation. Our findings indicate that participation in sport and physical activity falls with age and rises with education and income.
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Incentives' Effect in Influenza Vaccination Policy
Dan Yamin & Arieh Gavious
Management Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
In the majority of developed countries, the level of influenza vaccination coverage in all age groups is suboptimal. Hence, the authorities offer different kinds of incentives for people to become vaccinated such as subsidizing immunization or placing immunization centers in malls to make the process more accessible. We built a theoretical epidemiological game model to find the optimal incentive for vaccination and the corresponding expected level of vaccination coverage. The model was supported by survey data from questionnaires about people's perceptions about influenza and the vaccination against it. Results suggest that the optimal magnitude of the incentives should be greater when less contagious seasonal strains of influenza are involved and greater for the nonelderly population rather than the elderly, and should rise as high as $57 per vaccinated individual so that all children between the ages of six months and four years will be vaccinated.
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Within-mother analysis of seasonal patterns in health at birth
Janet Currie & Hannes Schwandt
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, forthcoming
Abstract:
A large literature describes relationships between month of birth, birth weight, and gestation. These relationships are hypothesized to reflect the causal impact of seasonal environmental factors. However, recent work casts doubt on this interpretation by showing that mothers with lower socioeconomic status are more likely to give birth in months that are associated with poorer birth outcomes. Seasonality in the numbers of conceptions in different months can also induce a mechanical correlation between preterm birth and month of birth. This paper analyzes the seasonality of health at birth using a large sample of 647,050 groups of US siblings representing 1,435,213 children. By following the same mother over time, we eliminate differences in fixed maternal characteristics as an explanation for seasonal differences in health at birth. We find a sharp trough in gestation length among babies conceived in May, which corresponds to an increase in prematurity of more than 10%. Birth weight conditional on gestation length, however, is found to be strongly hump-shaped over the year, with 8-9 additional g for summer conceptions. We examine several potential mechanisms for explaining seasonality in birth outcomes that have generally been dismissed in the literature on seasonality in rich countries, notably disease prevalence and nutrition. The May trough in gestation length coincides with a higher influenza prevalence in January and February, when these babies are nearing full term, whereas the hump shape in birth weight is associated with a similar pattern in pregnancy weight gain.
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Volitional Control of the Heart Rate
Ahmed Abukonna et al.
International Journal of Psychophysiology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The heart rate is largely under control of the autonomic nervous system. The aim of the present study is to investigate interactions between the brain and heart underlying volitional control of the heart and to explore the effectiveness of volition as a strategy to control heart rate without biofeedback. Twenty seven healthy male subjects voluntarily participated in the study and were instructed to decrease and increase their heart beats according to rhythmic, computer generated sound either 10% faster or slower than the subjects' measured heart rate. Sympathetic and parasympathetic activities were estimated with heart rate variability (HRV) obtained by power spectral analysis of RR intervals. Functional coupling patterns of cerebral cortex with heart were determined by Partial Directed Coherence (PDC). In HRslow task; HR and sympathetic activity significantly decreased. However parasympathetic activity and power spectral density of EEG in low Alpha (8 -10.5Hz) band significantly increased. Moreover information flow from parietal area (P3 and P4) to RR interval significantly increased. During HRquick task; HR, sympathetic activity and power spectral density of EEG in low Beta (14 -24 Hz) band significantly increased. Parasympathetic activity significantly decreased. Information flow from FT8, CZ and T8 electrodes to RR interval significantly increased. Our findings suggested that the heart beat can be controlled by volition and is related to some special areas in the cortex.
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Health impacts of free bus travel for young people: Evaluation of a natural experiment in London
Phil Edwards et al.
Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, August 2013, Pages 641-647
Background: We used the introduction of free bus travel for young people in London in 2005 as a natural experiment with which to assess its effects on active travel, car use, road traffic injuries, assaults, and on one measure of social inclusion, total number of trips made.
Methods: A controlled before-after analysis was conducted. We estimated trips by mode and distances travelled in the preintroduction and postintroduction periods using data from London Travel Demand Surveys. We estimated rates of road traffic injury and assault in each period using STATS19 data and Hospital Episode Statistics, respectively. We estimated the ratio of change in the target age group (12-17 years) to the change in adults (ages 25-59 years), with 95% CIs.
Results: The proportion of short trips travelled by bus by young people increased postintroduction. There was no evidence for an increase in the total number of bus trips or distance travelled by bus by young people attributable to the intervention. The proportion of short trips by walking decreased, but there was no evidence for any change to total distance walked. Car trips declined in both age groups, although distance travelled by car decreased more in young people. Road casualty rates declined, but the pre-post ratio of change was greater in young people than adults (ratio of ratios 0.84; 95% CI 0.82 to 0.87). Assaults increased and the ratio of change was greater in young people (1.20; 1.13 to 1.27). The frequency of all trips by young people was unchanged, both in absolute terms and relative to adults.
Conclusions: The introduction of free bus travel for young people had little impact on active travel overall and shifted some travel from car to buses that could help broader environmental objectives.
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Has the quality of working life improved in the EU-15 between 1995 and 2005?
Nathalie Greenan, Ekaterina Kalugina & Emmanuelle Walkowiak
Industrial and Corporate Change, forthcoming
Abstract:
This article provides a mapping of quality of working life and measures its evolution between 1995 and 2005 with European Working Conditions Surveys. Using multilevel modelling, we assess the sensitivity of observed trends to "composition effects" and "country effects". Results suggest a decreasing trend in the quality of working life: physical strain has increased, whereas work has become more intense and less complex. In Germany and Italy, all indicators have worsened, whereas other EU-15 countries have more mixed results.