The rising tide of alcohol.
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Alcohol Drinking↗
Biomedical subjects
Michael Marmot
Publications and source records attributed to Michael Marmot.
Neighbourhoods and self rated health: a comparison of public sector employees in London and Helsinki.
STUDY OBJECTIVE: Mortality and morbidity vary across neighbourhoods and larger residential areas. Effects of area deprivation on health may vary across countries, because of greater spatial separation of people occupying high and low socioeconomic positions and differences in the provision of local services and facilities. Neighbourhood variations in health and the contribution of residents' characteristics and neighbourhood indicators were compared in London and Helsinki, two settings where inequality and welfare policies differ. DESIGN: Data from two cohorts were used to investigate associations between self rated health and neighbourhood indicators using a multilevel approach. SETTING: London and Helsinki. PARTICIPANTS: From the Whitehall II study (London, aged 39-63) and the Helsinki health study (aged 40-60). MAIN RESULTS: Socioeconomic segregation was higher in London than in Helsinki. Age and sex adjusted differences in self rated health between neighbourhoods were also greater in London. Independent of individual socioeconomic position, neighbourhood unemployment, proportion of residents in manual occupations, and proportion of single households were associated with health. In pooled data, residence in a neighbourhood with highest unemployment was associated with an odds ratio of less than good self rated health of 1.51 (95% CI 1.30 to 1.75). High rates of single parenthood were associated with health in London but not in Helsinki. CONCLUSIONS: Neighbourhood socioeconomic context was associated with health in both countries, with some evidence of greater neighbourhood effects in London. Greater socioeconomic segregation in London may have emergent effects at the neighbourhood level. Local and national social policies may reduce, or restrict, inequality and segregation between areas.
Adult↗
Household item ownership and self-rated health: material and psychosocial explanations.
BACKGROUND: There has been an ongoing debate whether the effects of socioeconomic factors on health are due to absolute poverty and material factors or to relative deprivation and psychosocial factors. In the present analyses, we examined the importance for health of material factors, which may have a direct effect on health, and of those that may affect health indirectly, through psychosocial mechanisms. METHODS: Random national samples of men and women in Hungary (n = 973) and Poland (n = 1141) were interviewed (response rates 58% and 59%, respectively). The subjects reported their self-rated health, socioeconomic circumstances, including ownership of different household items, and perceived control over life. Household items were categorised as "basic needs", "socially oriented", and "luxury". We examined the association between the ownership of different groups of items and self-rated health. Since the lists of household items were different in Hungary and Poland, we conducted parallel identical analyses of the Hungarian and Polish data. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of poor or very poor health was 13% in Poland and 25% in Hungary. Education, material deprivation and the number of household items were all associated with poor health in bivariate analyses. All three groups of household items were positively related to self-rated health in age-adjusted analyses. The relation of basic needs items to poor health disappeared after controlling for other socioeconomic variables (mainly material deprivation). The relation of socially oriented and luxury items to poor health, however, persisted in multivariate models. The results were similar in both datasets. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that health is influenced by both material and psychosocial aspects of socioeconomic factors.
Adult↗
Prognosis of angina with and without a diagnosis: 11 year follow up in the Whitehall II prospective cohort study.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prognosis of angina among people with and without diagnosis by a doctor and an abnormal cardiovascular test result. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study with a median follow up of 11 years. SETTING: 20 civil service departments originally located in London. PARTICIPANTS: 10 308 civil servants aged 35-55 years at baseline. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Recurrent reports of angina; quality of life (SF-36 physical functioning); non-fatal myocardial infarction; death from any cause (n = 344). RESULTS: 1158 (11.4%) participants developed angina, and 813 (70%) had no evidence of diagnosis by a doctor at the time of the initial report. Participants without a diagnosis had an increased risk of impaired physical functioning (age and sex adjusted odds ratio of 2.36 (95% confidence interval 1.91 to 2.90)) compared with those who had neither angina nor myocardial infarction throughout follow up. Among reported cases of angina without a diagnosis, the 15.5% with an abnormality on a study electrocardiogram had an increased risk of death (hazard ratio 2.37 (1.16 to 4.87)). These effects were similar in magnitude to those in participants with a diagnosis of angina. CONCLUSION: Undiagnosed angina was common and had an adverse impact on prognosis comparable to that of diagnosed angina, particularly among people with electrocardiographic abnormalities. Efforts to improve prognosis among people with angina should take account of this submerged clinical iceberg.
Adult↗
Social and psychosocial influences on inflammatory markers and vascular function in civil servants (the Whitehall II study).
Social position and psychosocial factors are associated with coronary disease, but the underlying pathophysiologic mechanisms remain unclear. In a sample of 283 nonsmokers, we found that social position was inversely associated with interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein and that participants with mild depression had impaired endothelial function.
Blood Glucose↗
Effects of moderate and vigorous physical activity on heart rate variability in a British study of civil servants.
Physical inactivity and low resting heart rate variability (HRV) are associated with increased coronary heart disease incidence. In the Whitehall II study of civil servants aged 45-68 years (London, United Kingdom, 1997-1999), the strength of the association of moderate and vigorous activity with higher HRV was examined. Five-minute recordings of heart rate and HRV measures were obtained from 3328 participants. Calculated were time domain (standard deviation of NN intervals) and high-frequency-power measures as indicators of cardiac parasympathetic activity and low-frequency power of parasympathetic-sympathetic balance. Leisure-time physical activity (metabolic equivalent-hours per week) was categorized as moderate (>or=3-<5) and vigorous (>or=5). Moderate and vigorous physical activity were associated with higher HRV and lower heart rate. For men, linear trends of higher low-frequency power with increasing quartile of vigorous activity (304.6 (low), 329.0, 342.4, 362.5 (high); p < 0.01) and lower heart rate with increasing quartile of moderate activity (69.6 (low), 69.2, 68.9, 67.8 (high); p < 0.05) were found. These associations remained significant after adjustment for smoking and high alcohol intake. For men whose body mass index was >25 kg/m(2), vigorous activity was associated with HRV levels similar to those for normal-weight men who engaged in no vigorous activity. Vigorous activity was associated with higher HRV, representing a possible mechanism by which physical activity reduces coronary heart disease risk.
Aged↗
Do health control beliefs predict behaviour in Russians?
BACKGROUND: Unhealthy lifestyles contribute substantially to Russia's high mortality. Health control beliefs influence lifestyles to some extent in the West but this relationship is not well studied in Russia. METHOD: Data from a 1996 cross-sectional interview study in a multistage random Russian population sample (n=1599, response rate 66%) were analysed. These were belief in the ability to influence general health, risk of heart attack, or cancer; the prevalence of smoking, drinking alcohol several times weekly, binge drinking (>80 g alcohol per occasion), and obesity (self-reported body mass index >30); and several social characteristics. RESULTS: Believing one could influence one's health (prevalence 63%) and reduce the risk of a heart attack (42%) and cancer (30%) was associated with younger age, male sex, and higher income after controlling for other socioeconomic factors. Associations between health control beliefs and behaviours were generally weak and inconsistent. Men believing they could influence their general health were somewhat less likely to smoke or drink regularly. Fewer women who believed that they could reduce their risk of cancer were obese. CONCLUSIONS: Health control beliefs, commoner in younger and better off Russians, were weakly related to behaviours. This has implications for designing interventions to change health behaviours in Russia.
Adolescent↗
Socioeconomic differences in dietary patterns among middle-aged men and women.
The aim of the study is to (i) identify common dietary patterns, (ii) study socioeconomic differences in these dietary patterns, and (iii) assess whether they contribute to socioeconomic differences in biological risk factors. The data come from the Whitehall II study of London civil servants, who participated in the third phase (1991-1993) and were 39-63-years old (N=8004). Food frequency questionnaire and socioeconomic background information was from a questionnaire, and biological risk factors from a medical screening. Six dietary patterns were identified. In reference to high employment grade men, the odds ratios of low grade men consuming the 'unhealthy' or the 'very unhealthy' diet were 1.26 and 3.34, respectively, while the odds for the 'French' diet was 0.13. Among women the corresponding odds were 2.98, 6.19 and 0.25. Adjusting for spouse's socioeconomic status and to a lesser extent smoking and exercise as well as job control attenuate these grade differences somewhat. Among men and women adjusting for dietary patterns accounted for about 25-50 per cent of grade differences in HDL and serum triglyceride levels.
Adult↗
Health selection in the Whitehall II study, UK.
There has been considerable debate over the importance of the health selection hypothesis for explaining social gradients in health. Although studies have argued that it may not be an important explanation of social gradients in health, previous analyses have not estimated, simultaneously, the relative effect of health on changes in social position and of social position on changes in health (social causation). Cross-lagged longitudinal analyses using structural equation models enable the estimation of the relative size of these pathways which would be useful in determining the relative importance of the health selection hypothesis over the social causation hypothesis. Data from four phases of the Whitehall II study (initially consisting of 10,308 men and women aged 35-55 in the British civil service) were collected over a 10 year period. There was no evidence for an effect of mental (GHQ-30 and SF36) or physical health (SF-36) on changes in employment grade. When financial deprivation was used as a measure of social position, there was a significant effect of mental health on changes in social position among men although this health selection effect was over two and a half times smaller than the effect of social position on changes in health. The results suggest that the development of social gradients in health in the Whitehall II study may not be primarily explained in terms of a health selection effect.
Adult↗
Future uncertainty and socioeconomic inequalities in health: the Whitehall II study.
Over the past 20 years, socioeconomic inequalities in mortality have widened, while job security and financial security have decreased. This paper examines the Whitehall II study, a longitudinal study of white-collar British civil servants. In the Whitehall II cohort socioeconomic gradients in morbidity and cardiovascular risk factors at Phase 5 (1997-99) were generally steeper than at Phase 1 (1985-88). We examine the contribution of job and financial insecurity to these at Phase 5 in 6770 women and men, all of whom were white-collar civil servants at Phase 1. Steep, inverse employment grade gradients were observed for all health measures at Phase 5, except cholesterol and systolic blood pressure in women. Gradients in the sub-population of non-employed participants tended to be steeper than gradients for participants in employment, although, with the exception of self-rated health and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) score in men, differences were non-significant. Steep gradients in job insecurity were observed among employed participants (p<or=0.01), and in financial insecurity among both employed and non-employed participants (p<or=0.001), particularly non-employed men. With the exception of depression, adjustment for job insecurity had little effect on the employment grade gradients in morbidity. However, financial insecurity contributed substantially to gradients in self-rated health, longstanding illness, and depression in both employed and non-employed men, and additionally to GHQ score and diastolic blood pressure in the latter. Adjustment for financial insecurity in non-employed women substantially attenuated gradients in self-rated health, GHQ score and depression. These findings imply that the specific effects of job insecurity in this cohort may be less important than the more general effects of financial insecurity in determining inequalities in health.
Adult↗
Vascular disease and cognitive function: evidence from the Whitehall II Study.
OBJECTIVES: : To test the hypothesis of an inverse association between indicators of vascular disease and cognitive function in the general, stroke-free population. DESIGN: : A longitudinal, British civil service-based cohort study. Measures of vascular disease examined were prevalent at baseline or traced over a median of 11 years, between Phases 1 (1985-1988) and 5 (1997-1999) of data collection. Cognitive function was assessed at Phase 5 of data collection. SETTING: : Twenty London-based Civil Service departments. PARTICIPANTS: : Four thousand one hundred forty-one men and 1,681 women, aged 46 to 68 when tested for cognitive function. MEASUREMENTS: : A battery of cognitive tests consisting of: memory test, Alice Heim 4, Mill-Hill, phonemic, and semantic fluency. RESULTS: : The occurrence of angina pectoris (P<.001), myocardial infarction (P=.02), all coronary heart disease (P<.001), and intermittent claudication (P=.004) was associated with poor cognitive function. These effects were independent of age and socioeconomic status. The association between indicators of vascular disease and cognitive function applied to the entire range of cognitive function measures examined in the study. CONCLUSION: : The findings support the view that vascular disease is predictive of poor cognitive function in the general population. The fact that presence of vascular disease was associated with diminished cognitive function even in a relatively young cohort has implications for the management of vascular disease.
Adult↗
Chronic stress accelerates atherosclerosis in the apolipoprotein E deficient mouse.
Conventional cardiovascular risk factors such as cholesterol and blood pressure do not account fully for variation in coronary heart disease suggesting the involvement of additional mechanisms. We have examined the effects of a chronic psychological stress protocol on the development of atherosclerosis in the apolipoprotein E knockout mouse. We observed a 3-fold increase in staining for atheroma accompanied by a 10-fold increase in corticosterone concentrations in mice stressed for 12 weeks. These data suggest that chronic mild stress can induce or accelerate the development of atherosclerosis.
Animals↗
Intimations of mortality: perceived age of leaving middle age as a predictor of future health outcomes within the Whitehall II study.
OBJECTIVES: to determine the association between the subjective rate of ageing and future health outcomes. DESIGN: prospective cohort study (Whitehall II study). At the third phase of the study (1991-1993), participants were asked at what age they think most people leave middle age. Participants were followed until the end of phase 5 (1997-2000), so that mean length of follow-up was 7 years. SETTING: London based office staff in 20 civil service departments. SUBJECTS: 5,262 male and 2,277 female civil servants aged 40-60. MEASURES: validated new cases of coronary heart disease and health function, measured by the SF-36 General Health Survey, at phase 5. RESULTS: perceived age of leaving middle age increased with age, self-rated health and grade of employment, and was higher in women. Adjusting for age and sex, people who believed middle age ends < or =60 years, compared to > or =70 years, were at higher risk for coronary heart disease (HR=1.43, 95% CI=1.05-1.94), fatal coronary heart disease and non-fatal myocardial infarction (HR=1.52, 0.95-2.42), and poor physical (OR=1.29, 1.10-1.50) and mental (OR=1.25, 1.07-1.45) functioning during follow-up. Adjustment for self-rated health, employment grade, health behaviours, social networks, control and baseline health status, respectively, did not eliminate these associations. CONCLUSIONS: the reported age at which middle age ends predicts future health outcomes. We hypothesise that perceived end of middle age acts as a general summary of the subjective rate of ageing.
Adult↗
Neighbourhood deprivation and health: does it affect us all equally?
BACKGROUND: Neighbourhood socioeconomic status (SES) may affect rich and poor residents differentially. Two models are proposed. Model 1: living in a non-deprived neighbourhood is better for health because better collective material and social resources are available. Model 2: being poor (rich) relative to the neighbourhood average is associated with worse (better) health because of the discrepancy between an individual's situation and those around them. METHODS: Individual data from the Whitehall II study covering health, SES, and perceived status were linked to census data on neighbourhood deprivation. RESULTS: Both individual and neighbourhood deprivation increased the risk of poor general and mental health. There was a suggestion that the effect of living in a deprived area was more marked for poorer individuals, although interactions were not statistically significant. Poor people in poor neighbourhoods reported more financial and neighbourhood problems and rated themselves lowest on the ladder of society. CONCLUSIONS: We found no evidence that personal poverty combined with affluent neighbourhood had negative health consequences. Rather, living in a deprived neighbourhood may have the most negative health effects on poorer individuals, possibly because they are more dependent on collective resources in the neighbourhood.
England↗
Commentary: Disentangling the association between short height and cardiovascular risk--genes or environment?
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Body Height↗
Leisure time physical activity and coronary heart disease mortality in men symptomatic or asymptomatic for ischaemia: evidence from the Whitehall study.
BACKGROUND: Although numerous studies have shown an association between physical activity and coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality in healthy persons, few have reported on this relation in individuals with pre-existing diseases, such as ischaemia. Further, we are unaware of any study to examine if this relationship is modified by the symptomatic nature of the ischaemia. METHODS: To explore these issues, we analysed data from a 25 year follow-up of mortality for 6474 male British civil servants who underwent a resting electrocardiogram and responded to queries regarding angina at study entry. RESULTS: Among men who had ECG abnormalities but no angina (i.e. asymptomatic), activity was associated with a higher rate of CHD mortality. Among men with both angina and ECG abnormalities (i.e. symptomatic), activity was associated with lower CHD mortality but this was not statistically significant at conventional levels. CONCLUSIONS: In the present study, there was a suggestion that the symptomatic nature of ischaemia appeared to modify the effect of physical activity on total and CHD mortality. Although these findings should be examined in other studies, they point to the need for a pre-participation medical examination in active persons or those contemplating embarking on an activity programme.
Adult↗
Determinants of adult mortality in Russia: estimates from sibling data.
OBJECTIVES: It would be useful to have a quick and cost-effective method to study individual-level determinants of mortality in countries where reliable data are not available. We have modified indirect demographic methods and applied them to a population sample to investigate predictors of mortality in Russia. METHODS: A national sample of the Russian population was interviewed in a cross-sectional survey. The participants were asked about characteristics of their eldest siblings, including their vital status, year of birth, and year of death (if deceased). The association between personal characteristics and mortality risk was estimated for 682 male and 698 female siblings (of whom 122 and 81, respectively, had died). RESULTS: In both sexes, mortality was strongly associated with smoking and low education. After adjustment for smoking and education, mortality was elevated in men and women who drank alcohol at least once a month. Mortality was also higher among in men who had been binge drinking (more than half a bottle of vodka per drinking session) at least once a week (adjusted risk ratio [RR] = 2.5; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.2-4.9) and in women who were binging at least once a month (RR = 3.9; CI = 1.1-14.5) compared with nonbinging. SUBJECTS: Similar associations with drinking were seen for cardiovascular deaths in men. Childhood social circumstances were not associated with mortality. CONCLUSIONS: The study of siblings appears to be a cost-effective alternative for estimating risk factors for mortality in literate populations. This study identified smoking, low education, and alcohol consumption (especially binge drinking) as risk factors for mortality in Russia.
Adult↗