Giuseppe
Emeritus
[Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences of the United States of America, full text: (LINK). Abstract, edited.]
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Early childhood poverty, immune-mediated disease processes, and adult productivity
Kathleen M. Ziol-Guest<SUP>a</SUP>,<SUP>1</SUP>, Greg J. Duncan<SUP>b</SUP>, Ariel Kalil<SUP>c</SUP>, and W. Thomas Boyce<SUP>d</SUP>
<SUP></SUP>
Author Affiliations: <SUP>a</SUP>Department of Policy Analysis and Management, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853; <SUP>b</SUP>School of Education University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-5500; <SUP>c</SUP>Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60091; and <SUP>d</SUP>School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, BC, Canada V6T 1Z3
Edited by Gene E. Robinson, University of Illinois at Urbana?Champaign, Urbana, IL, and approved August 31, 2012 (received for review February 22, 2012)
Abstract
This study seeks to understand whether poverty very early in life is associated with early-onset adult conditions related to immune-mediated chronic diseases. It also tests the role that these immune-mediated chronic diseases may play in accounting for the associations between early poverty and adult productivity. Data (n = 1,070) come from the US Panel Study of Income Dynamics and include economic conditions in utero and throughout childhood and adolescence coupled with adult (age 30?41 y) self-reports of health and economic productivity. Results show that low income, particularly in very early childhood (between the prenatal and second year of life), is associated with increases in early-adult hypertension, arthritis, and limitations on activities of daily living. Moreover, these relationships and particularly arthritis partially account for the associations between early childhood poverty and adult productivity as measured by adult work hours and earnings. The results suggest that the associations between early childhood poverty and these adult disease states may be immune-mediated.
<SUP>1</SUP>To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: kmz7@cornell.edu.
Author contributions: K.M.Z.-G., G.J.D., and A.K. designed research; K.M.Z.-G., G.J.D., and A.K. performed research; K.M.Z.-G. analyzed data; and K.M.Z.-G., G.J.D., A.K., and W.T.B. wrote the paper.
This paper results from the Arthur M. Sackler Colloquium of the National Academy of Sciences, ?Biological Embedding of Early Social Adversity: From Fruit Flies to Kindergartners,? held December 9?10, 2011, at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering in Irvine, CA. The complete program and audio files of most presentations are available on the NAS Web site at www.nasonline.org/biological-embedding.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1203167109/-/DCSupplemental.
-<SUP></SUP>
Author Affiliations: <SUP>a</SUP>Department of Policy Analysis and Management, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853; <SUP>b</SUP>School of Education University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-5500; <SUP>c</SUP>Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60091; and <SUP>d</SUP>School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, BC, Canada V6T 1Z3
Edited by Gene E. Robinson, University of Illinois at Urbana?Champaign, Urbana, IL, and approved August 31, 2012 (received for review February 22, 2012)
Abstract
This study seeks to understand whether poverty very early in life is associated with early-onset adult conditions related to immune-mediated chronic diseases. It also tests the role that these immune-mediated chronic diseases may play in accounting for the associations between early poverty and adult productivity. Data (n = 1,070) come from the US Panel Study of Income Dynamics and include economic conditions in utero and throughout childhood and adolescence coupled with adult (age 30?41 y) self-reports of health and economic productivity. Results show that low income, particularly in very early childhood (between the prenatal and second year of life), is associated with increases in early-adult hypertension, arthritis, and limitations on activities of daily living. Moreover, these relationships and particularly arthritis partially account for the associations between early childhood poverty and adult productivity as measured by adult work hours and earnings. The results suggest that the associations between early childhood poverty and these adult disease states may be immune-mediated.
- health disparities
- socioeconomic status
<SUP>1</SUP>To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: kmz7@cornell.edu.
Author contributions: K.M.Z.-G., G.J.D., and A.K. designed research; K.M.Z.-G., G.J.D., and A.K. performed research; K.M.Z.-G. analyzed data; and K.M.Z.-G., G.J.D., A.K., and W.T.B. wrote the paper.
This paper results from the Arthur M. Sackler Colloquium of the National Academy of Sciences, ?Biological Embedding of Early Social Adversity: From Fruit Flies to Kindergartners,? held December 9?10, 2011, at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering in Irvine, CA. The complete program and audio files of most presentations are available on the NAS Web site at www.nasonline.org/biological-embedding.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1203167109/-/DCSupplemental.
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