Newswise — San Francisco, Calif., – It is well known that socioeconomic factors such as poverty and low education play a role in health, but new research released today at the American Public Health Association’s 140th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, Calif., shows this association is also seen in biomarkers of the blood.
New research suggests that the variation in size of red blood cells known as “red cell distribution width,” (RDW) most recently used as a predictor of hospitalization outcomes and mortality, is now linked back to social causes.
After controlling for a number of factors, including age, gender, body mass index and history of smoking or disease, results show that those with low education are nearly one and a half times more likely to have high RDW. Those living below 100 percent of the federal poverty level are nearly twice as likely to have high RDW. African Americans are at higher risk of high RDW than whites, and people who have never been married are more likely to have high RDW. In addition, with each increase in the amount of social resources people have, there is a corresponding decrease in risk of having high RDW.
“We’ve known for years that low education and low income affect myriad health outcomes, but now we are seeing this relationship at the cellular level,” said Matthew Pantell, MS, at UC Berkeley and UCSF, and presenter at APHA’s Annual Meeting. “We’re seeing how social disadvantages and influences can get under the skin and impact health unlike we’ve shown before.”
The findings emerge from 1999-2010 data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, which included 13,460 adults aged 45 or older. The research was conducted at the National Institutes of Health at the National Institute on Aging.
APHA’s 140th Annual Meeting is themed “Prevention and Wellness Across the Lifespan” and will focus on the importance of environmental, social and behavioral issues that impact health at all stages of life.
Session 4030.0: Social epidemiology 1Featured presentation: Social predictors of red cell distribution width – an emerging biomarker of diseaseDate: Tuesday, October 30, 2012, at 9:30 a.m. PTResearcher: Matthew Pantell, MS, Joint Medical Program at the University of California, Berkeley and University of California, San Francisco, Calif.
Information for Media: The APHA Annual Meeting Press Office will be located in Room 3020 of the Moscone Convention Center West. The full Annual Meeting program and abstracts are available online at http://www.apha.org/meetings/sessions/. Final programs with session locations, along with daily highlights and other press materials, will be available on site at the APHA Press Office. Please visit our website for additional Annual Meeting press information.
For more about APHA, visit www.apha.org.
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Founded in 1872, the APHA is the oldest and most diverse organization of public health professionals in the world. The association aims to protect all Americans and their communities from preventable, serious health threats and strives to assure community-based health promotion and disease prevention activities and preventive health services are universally accessible in the United States. APHA represents a broad array of health providers, educators, environmentalists, policy-makers and health officials at all levels working both within and outside governmental organizations and educational institutions. More information is available at www.apha.org.
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