Cardiac autonomic reactivity and recovery in predicting carotid atherosclerosis: the cardiovascular risk in young Finns study.

The present study examined the association of cardiac autonomic task-induced reactivity and recovery to preclinical atherosclerosis. Thirty-three men and 33 women aged 24-39 years participated in the ongoing epidemiological Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study. The authors measured heart rate (HR), respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and preejection period (PEP) during the mental arithmetic and speech tasks in 1999. Carotid atherosclerosis was assessed by measuring the thickness of the common carotid artery intima-media complex (IMT) with ultrasound in 2001. Higher HR, RSA, and PEP reactivity were associated with lower IMT values even after adjusting for cardiovascular risk factors (lipid levels, obesity, and blood pressure). In addition, better HR recovery after the mental arithmetic task was associated with lower IMT values, and this association persisted after all adjustments. Thus, higher task-induced cardiac autonomic reactivity and better HR recovery were related to less preclinical atherosclerosis. The authors concluded that cardiac pattern of reactivity and quick recovery may be associated with better cardiovascular health, and therefore all reactivity occurring in challenging situations should not automatically be considered as potentially pathological.

Socioeconomic circumstances in childhood and blood pressure in adulthood: the cardiovascular risk in young Finns study.

PURPOSE: Prospective evidence suggests an inverse association between socioeconomic circumstances in childhood and adolescence and blood pressure (BP) in adulthood, but uncertainty remains about whether this association is confounded by risk factors acting in utero, early infancy, and adulthood. The authors investigated this question in a population-based cohort of 2270 Finnish children and adolescents aged 3 to 18 years at study entry. METHODS: Information about early socioeconomic circumstances, birth weight, and breast-feeding were requested from participants or their mothers in 1980 and 1983. Adulthood socioeconomic position, lifestyle factors, and systolic BP were measured at ages 24 to 39 years in 2001. RESULTS: There was a graded association between lower parental socioeconomic position in childhood and adolescence and higher systolic BP in adulthood for men and women in different birth cohorts and across different socioeconomic indicators. This association was independent of adulthood socioeconomic position. Adjustment for risk factors, including birth weight, breast-feeding, adult body mass index, smoking, and alcohol consumption, had little effect on the association between parental socioeconomic position and systolic BP. CONCLUSION: Early socioeconomic disadvantage seems to carry a long-lasting harmful effect on BP that is not counteracted by risk profiles in later life.

Contribution of adolescent and early adult personality to the inverse association between education and cardiovascular risk behaviours: prospective population-based cohort study.

BACKGROUND: The role of early personality in socioeconomic inequalities in health is not well understood. We investigated the extent to which type A components in adolescence and early adulthood contributed to the inverse association between education and behavioural cardiovascular disease risk factors in adulthood. METHODS: Prospective cohort study with a population-based random sample of 477 men and 648 women, aged 12-21 years at baseline. Baseline data included information on pathogenic and protective components of type A behaviours (impatience, aggression, hard-driving, and engagement-involvement) and parental education. The 9-year follow-up data included information on the participant's educational level and health behaviours (smoking, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, butter use). RESULTS: After adjustment for parental education, high levels of impatience and low levels of hard-driving in adolescence and early adulthood predicted low educational level in adulthood (Ps < 0.01 for men, Ps < 0.001 for women). Adulthood education was inversely associated with smoking in women and men (odds ratios [OR] = 8.5 and 7.9, 95% CI: 3.4-18.4 and 3.1-23.9, respectively), and with physical inactivity in women (OR = 5.4, 95% CI: 2.6-11.4). In men, components of type A behaviour explained 28.5% of the inverse association between education and smoking, even after controlling for parental education. In women, the corresponding proportions were 20.5% and 17.7% for smoking and physical inactivity, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The inverse associations of adulthood education with smoking in men and women and physical inactivity in women may be partly rooted in personality-related factors present earlier in life. Our evidence suggests that personality should be studied as a potential contributor to socioeconomic differences in health behaviours.

Contribution of socioeconomic status to the association between hostility and cardiovascular risk behaviors: a prospective cohort study.

The authors examined the contribution of childhood and early adulthood socioeconomic status (SES) to the association between adulthood cynical hostility and cardiovascular risk behaviors. Participants from the population-based, prospective Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study were 531 males and 688 females, aged 12-21 years at the baseline in 1983 and 21-30 years at the follow-up in 1992. Cardiovascular risk behaviors comprised the number of cigarettes smoked per day, physical inactivity, the type of fat used in the diet, and the frequency of alcohol consumption. The general linear models showed socioeconomic variation in cynical hostility, butter use in the diet, and smoking. In regression analyses, hostility was positively associated with smoking in men and women (beta coefficients = 0.16 and 0.09; p values = 0.000 and 0.019, respectively) and with frequency of alcohol use (beta coefficients = 0.10 and 0.03; p values = 0.024 and 0.03, respectively). Adding parents' and participants' SES to the model marginally attenuated these associations. The authors conclude that the association of cynical hostility with smoking and alcohol use seems to be independent of intergenerational social mobility and childhood and adulthood SES.