IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v85y2013icp1-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Socioeconomic status, health behavior, and leukocyte telomere length in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999–2002

Author

Listed:
  • Needham, Belinda L.
  • Adler, Nancy
  • Gregorich, Steven
  • Rehkopf, David
  • Lin, Jue
  • Blackburn, Elizabeth H.
  • Epel, Elissa S.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and leukocyte telomere length (LTL) – a marker of cell aging that has been linked to stressful life circumstances – in a nationally representative, socioeconomically and ethnically diverse sample of US adults aged 20–84. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 1999–2002, we found that respondents who completed less than a high school education had significantly shorter telomeres than those who graduated from college. Income was not associated with LTL. African-Americans had significantly longer telomeres than whites, but there were no significant racial/ethnic differences in the association between education and telomere length. Finally, we found that the association between education and LTL was partially mediated by smoking and body mass index but not by drinking or sedentary behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Needham, Belinda L. & Adler, Nancy & Gregorich, Steven & Rehkopf, David & Lin, Jue & Blackburn, Elizabeth H. & Epel, Elissa S., 2013. "Socioeconomic status, health behavior, and leukocyte telomere length in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999–2002," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 1-8.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:85:y:2013:i:c:p:1-8
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.02.023
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953613001056
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.02.023?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Needham, Belinda L. & Fernandez, Jose R. & Lin, Jue & Epel, Elissa S. & Blackburn, Elizabeth H., 2012. "Socioeconomic status and cell aging in children," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(12), pages 1948-1951.
    2. Mariela Jaskelioff & Florian L. Muller & Ji-Hye Paik & Emily Thomas & Shan Jiang & Andrew C. Adams & Ergun Sahin & Maria Kost-Alimova & Alexei Protopopov & Juan Cadiñanos & James W. Horner & Eleftheri, 2011. "Telomerase reactivation reverses tissue degeneration in aged telomerase-deficient mice," Nature, Nature, vol. 469(7328), pages 102-106, January.
    3. David Card & Alan B. Krueger, 1992. "School Quality and Black-White Relative Earnings: A Direct Assessment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(1), pages 151-200.
    4. Ford, E.S. & Zhao, G. & Tsai, J. & Li, C., 2011. "Low-Risk lifestyle behaviors and all-cause mortality: Findings from the national health and nutrition examination survey III mortality study," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 101(10), pages 1922-1929.
    5. Geronimus, A.T. & Hicken, M. & Keene, D. & Bound, J., 2006. ""Weathering" and age patterns of allostatic load scores among blacks and whites in the United States," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 96(5), pages 826-833.
    6. Tony Robertson & G David Batty & Geoff Der & Michael J Green & Liane M McGlynn & Alan McIntyre & Paul G Shiels & Michaela Benzeval, 2012. "Is Telomere Length Socially Patterned? Evidence from the West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(7), pages 1-13, July.
    7. Elizabeth H. Blackburn, 2000. "Telomere states and cell fates," Nature, Nature, vol. 408(6808), pages 53-56, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Saruna Ghimire & Carl V Hill & Francisco S Sy & Rachelle Rodriguez, 2019. "Decline in telomere length by age and effect modification by gender, allostatic load and comorbidities in National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999-2002)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(8), pages 1-14, August.
    2. Hill, Terrence D. & Ellison, Christopher G. & Burdette, Amy M. & Taylor, John & Friedman, Katherine L., 2016. "Dimensions of religious involvement and leukocyte telomere length," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 168-175.
    3. Carroll, Judith E. & Price, Jonah Eliezer & Brown, Joni & Bamishigbin, Olajide & Shalowitz, Madeleine U. & Ramey, Sharon & Dunkel Schetter, Christine, 2022. "Lifetime discrimination in low to middle income mothers and cellular aging: A prospective analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 311(C).
    4. Whisman, Mark A. & Robustelli, Briana L. & Sbarra, David A., 2016. "Marital disruption is associated with shorter salivary telomere length in a probability sample of older adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 60-67.
    5. Kawachi, Ichiro & Subramanian, S.V., 2018. "Social epidemiology for the 21st century," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 240-245.
    6. Simons, Ronald L. & Lei, Man Kit & Beach, Steven R.H. & Philibert, Robert A. & Cutrona, Carolyn E. & Gibbons, Frederick X. & Barr, Ashley, 2016. "Economic hardship and biological weathering: The epigenetics of aging in a U.S. sample of black women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 192-200.
    7. Luis Rosero-Bixby & David H Rehkopf & William H Dow & Jue Lin & Elissa S Epel & Jorge Azofeifa & Alejandro Leal, 2019. "Correlates of longitudinal leukocyte telomere length in the Costa Rican Longevity Study of Healthy Aging (CRELES): On the importance of DNA collection and storage procedures," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(10), pages 1-18, October.
    8. Das, Aniruddha, 2019. "Loneliness does (not) have cardiometabolic effects: A longitudinal study of older adults in two countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 223(C), pages 104-112.
    9. David W Freeman & Nicole Noren Hooten & Yoonseo Kim & Nicolle A Mode & Ngozi Ejiogu & Alan B Zonderman & Michele K Evans, 2020. "Association between GDF15, poverty and mortality in urban middle-aged African American and white adults," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(8), pages 1-13, August.
    10. Needham, Belinda L. & Straight, Bilinda & Hilton, Charles E. & Olungah, Charles Owuor & Lin, Jue, 2021. "Family socioeconomic status and child telomere length among the Samburu of Kenya," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    11. Kaori Fujishiro & Belinda L Needham & Paul A Landsbergis & Teresa Seeman & Nancy Swords Jenny & Ana V Diez Roux, 2018. "Selected occupational characteristics and change in leukocyte telomere length over 10 years: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(9), pages 1-12, September.
    12. David H. Rehkopf & Luis Rosero-Bixby & William H. Dow, 2016. "A cross-national comparison of 12 biomarkers finds no universal biomarkers of aging among individuals aged 60 and older," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 14(1), pages 255-277.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hill, Terrence D. & Ellison, Christopher G. & Burdette, Amy M. & Taylor, John & Friedman, Katherine L., 2016. "Dimensions of religious involvement and leukocyte telomere length," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 168-175.
    2. Theall, Katherine P. & Brett, Zoë H. & Shirtcliff, Elizabeth A. & Dunn, Erin C. & Drury, Stacy S., 2013. "Neighborhood disorder and telomeres: Connecting children's exposure to community level stress and cellular response," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 50-58.
    3. Regina Frei & Sarah R Haile & Margot Mutsch & Sabine Rohrmann, 2015. "Relationship of Serum Vitamin D Concentrations and Allostatic Load as a Measure of Cumulative Biological Risk among the US Population: A Cross-Sectional Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(10), pages 1-17, October.
    4. Needham, Belinda L. & Straight, Bilinda & Hilton, Charles E. & Olungah, Charles Owuor & Lin, Jue, 2021. "Family socioeconomic status and child telomere length among the Samburu of Kenya," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    5. Heather Antecol & Kelly Bedard, 2004. "The Racial Wage Gap: The Importance of Labor Force Attachment Differences across Black, Mexican, and White Men," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(2).
    6. repec:lan:wpaper:4471 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. David H Chae & Sean Clouston & Mark L Hatzenbuehler & Michael R Kramer & Hannah L F Cooper & Sacoby M Wilson & Seth I Stephens-Davidowitz & Robert S Gold & Bruce G Link, 2015. "Association between an Internet-Based Measure of Area Racism and Black Mortality," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(4), pages 1-12, April.
    8. Maria Iacovou, 2002. "Class Size in the Early Years: Is Smaller Really Better?," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 261-290.
    9. Sirois, Catherine, 2020. "The strain of sons' incarceration on mothers’ health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    10. Card, David & Rothstein, Jesse, 2007. "Racial segregation and the black-white test score gap," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(11-12), pages 2158-2184, December.
    11. Bertocchi, Graziella & Dimico, Arcangelo, 2014. "Slavery, education, and inequality," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 197-209.
    12. Lisa Cook, 2014. "Violence and economic activity: evidence from African American patents, 1870–1940," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 221-257, June.
    13. Jamie H. Douglas & Michael D. Steinberger, 2015. "The Sexual Orientation Wage Gap for Racial Minorities," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 59-108, January.
    14. Pierre-Philippe Combes & Bruno Decreuse & Morgane Laouénan & Alain Trannoy, 2016. "Customer Discrimination and Employment Outcomes: Theory and Evidence from the French Labor Market," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(1), pages 107-160.
    15. Cassandra Robertson & Rourke O’Brien, 2018. "Health Endowment at Birth and Variation in Intergenerational Economic Mobility: Evidence From U.S. County Birth Cohorts," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(1), pages 249-269, February.
    16. Brown, Laura J & Sear, Rebecca, 2020. "Do parenting, reproductive and health traits cluster together in distinct trajectories? Evidence from two UK cohort studies," OSF Preprints r8jvw, Center for Open Science.
    17. Sophie van Huellen & Duo Qin, 2019. "Compulsory Schooling and Returns to Education: A Re-Examination," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-20, September.
    18. Marrero,Gustavo Alberto & Rodríguez,Juan Gabriel & Van Der Weide,Roy, 2021. "Does Race and Gender Inequality Impact Income Growth ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9865, The World Bank.
    19. Robert A. Margo, 1993. "Explaining Black-White Wage Convergence, 1940-1950: The Role of the Great Compression," NBER Historical Working Papers 0044, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. James Heckman & Anne Layne-Farrar & Petra Todd, 1995. "The Schooling Quality-Earnings Relationship: Using Economic Theory to Interpret Functional Forms Consistent with the Evidence," NBER Working Papers 5288, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Matthews, Karen A. & Schwartz, Joseph E. & Cohen, Sheldon, 2011. "Indices of socioeconomic position across the life course as predictors of coronary calcification in black and white men and women: Coronary artery risk development in young adults study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(5), pages 768-774, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:85:y:2013:i:c:p:1-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.