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American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access published online on September 14, 2007
American Journal of Epidemiology, doi:10.1093/aje/kwm247
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American Journal of Epidemiology © The Author 2007. Published by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION

Socioeconomic Gradients in Immune Response to Latent Infection

Jennifer Beam Dowd1, Mary N. Haan2, Lynn Blythe2, Kari Moore2 and Allison E. Aiello1,2

1 Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI
2 Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI

Correspondence to Dr. Allison E. Aiello, Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health, Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 1214 South University, 2nd Floor, Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548 (e-mail: aielloa{at}umich.edu).

Received for publication March 7, 2007. Accepted for publication August 1, 2007.

There is a strong relation between socioeconomic position and health outcomes, although the mechanisms are poorly understood. The authors used data from 1,503 California participants in the 1998–1999 Sacramento Area Latino Study on Aging aged 60–100 years to ask whether socioeconomic position is related to immune function as measured by the body's ability to keep latent herpesvirus antibody levels in a quiescent state. Individuals with lower educational levels had significantly higher levels of immunoglobulin G antibodies to cytomegalovirus and herpes simplex virus type 1. The odds ratio for being in a higher tertile of cytomegalovirus antibodies was 1.54 (95% confidence interval: 1.18, 2.01) for those in the lowest educational group, and the odds ratio for being in a higher tertile of herpes simplex virus type 1 was 1.63 (95% confidence interval: 1.25, 2.13). The relation between education and cytomegalovirus and herpes simplex virus type 1 antibody levels remained strong after controlling for baseline health conditions, smoking status, and body mass index. This is the first study known to show a relation between socioeconomic position and immune response to latent infection. It provides suggestive evidence that modulation of the immune system via latent infections may play a role in the observed associations between socioeconomic position and disease.

aging; cytomegalovirus; herpesvirus 1, human; Hispanic Americans; immunity; social class; socioeconomic factors

Abbreviations: CMV, cytomegalovirus; CRP, C-reactive protein; HSV-1, herpes simplex virus type 1; SALSA, Sacramento Area Latino Study on Aging


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