TY  - JOUR
ID  - discovery1791
SN  - 1524-4539
EP  - 3077
JF  - Circulation
AV  - public
N2  - BACKGROUND: Laboratory and clinical studies suggest that the autonomic nervous system responds to chronic behavioral and psychosocial stressors with adverse metabolic consequences and that this may explain the relation between low social position and high coronary risk. We sought to test this hypothesis in a healthy occupational cohort. METHODS AND RESULTS: This study comprised 2197 male civil servants 45 to 68 years of age in the Whitehall II study who were undergoing standardized assessments of social position (employment grade) and the psychosocial, behavioral, and metabolic risk factors for coronary disease previously found to be associated with low social position. Five-minute recordings of heart rate variability (HRV) were used to assess cardiac parasympathetic function (SD of N-N intervals and high-frequency power [0.15 to 0.40 Hz]) and the influence of sympathetic and parasympathetic function (low-frequency power [0.04 to 0.15 Hz]). Low employment grade was associated with low HRV (age-adjusted trend for each modality, P< or =0.02). Adverse behavioral factors (smoking, exercise, alcohol, and diet) and psychosocial factors (job control) showed age-adjusted associations with low HRV (P<0.03). The age-adjusted mean low-frequency power was 319 ms2 among those participants in the bottom tertile of job control compared with 379 ms2 in the other participants (P=0.004). HRV showed strong (P<0.001) linear associations with components of the metabolic syndrome (waist circumference, systolic blood pressure, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and fasting and 2-hour postload glucose). The social gradient in prevalence of metabolic syndrome was explained statistically by adjustment for low-frequency power, behavioral factors, and job control. CONCLUSIONS: Chronically impaired autonomic function may link social position to different components of coronary risk in the general population.
IS  - 23
Y1  - 2005/06/14/
VL  - 111
A1  - Hemingway, H
A1  - Shipley, M
A1  - Brunner, E
A1  - Britton, A
A1  - Malik, M
A1  - Marmot, M
SP  - 3071
UR  - https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1791/
KW  - Aged
KW  -  Autonomic Nervous System
KW  -  Coronary Disease
KW  -  Employment
KW  -  Health Behavior
KW  -  Heart Rate
KW  -  Humans
KW  -  Male
KW  -  Metabolic Syndrome
KW  -  Middle Aged
KW  -  Power
KW  -  Psychological
KW  -  Risk Factors
KW  -  Social Class
KW  -  Socioeconomic Factors
KW  -  Surveys and Questionnaires
TI  - Does autonomic function link social position to coronary risk? The Whitehall II study.
ER  -