| 1. |
- Gustafsson, Per E., et al.
(författare)
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Do peer relations in adolescence influence health in adulthood? : Peer problems in the school setting and the metabolic syndrome in middle-age
- 2012
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - San Francisco : Public Library of Science. - 1932-6203. ; 7:6, s. e39385-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While the importance of social relations for health has been demonstrated in childhood, adolescence and adulthood, few studies have examined the prospective importance of peer relations for adult health. The aim of this study was to examine whether peer problems in the school setting in adolescence relates to the metabolic syndrome in middle-age. Participants came from the Northern Swedish Cohort, a 27-year cohort study of school leavers (effective n = 881, 82% of the original cohort). A score of peer problems was operationalized through form teachers' assessment of each student's isolation and popularity among school peers at age 16 years, and the metabolic syndrome was measured by clinical measures at age 43 according to established criteria. Additional information on health, health behaviors, achievement and social circumstances were collected from teacher interviews, school records, clinical measurements and self-administered questionnaires. Logistic regression was used as the main statistical method. Results showed a dose-response relationship between peer problems in adolescence and metabolic syndrome in middle-age, corresponding to 36% higher odds for the metabolic syndrome at age 43 for each SD higher peer problems score at age 16. The association remained significant after adjustment for health, health behaviors, school adjustment or family circumstances in adolescence, and for psychological distress, health behaviors or social circumstances in adulthood. In analyses stratified by sex, the results were significant only in women after adjustment for covariates. Peer problems were significantly related to all individual components of the metabolic syndrome. These results suggest that unsuccessful adaption to the school peer group can have enduring consequences for metabolic health.
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| 2. |
- Gustafsson, Per E, et al.
(författare)
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Social and material adversity from adolescence to adulthood and allostatic load in middle-aged women and men : results from the Northern Swedish Cohort
- 2012
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Ingår i: Annals of Behavioral Medicine. - New York : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0883-6612 .- 1532-4796. ; 43:1, s. 117-28
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BackgroundLittle is known about the theoretically assumed association between adversity exposure over the life course and allostatic load in adulthood.PurposeThis study aims to examine whether social and material adversity over the life course is related to allostatic load in mid-adulthood.MethodsA 27-year prospective Swedish cohort (N = 822; 77% response rate) reported exposure to social and material adversities at age 16, 21, 30 and 43 years. At age 43, allostatic load was operationalized based on 12 biological parameters.ResultsSocial adversity accumulated over the life course was related to allostatic load in both women and men, independently of cumulative socioeconomic disadvantage. Moreover, social adversity in adolescence (in women) and young adulthood (in men) was related to allostatic load, independently of cumulative socioeconomic disadvantage and also of later adversity exposure during adulthood.ConclusionExposure to adversities involving relational threats impacts on allostatic load in adulthood and operates according to life course models of cumulative risk and a sensitive period around the transition into adulthood.
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| 3. |
- Gustafsson, Per E, et al.
(författare)
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Socio-economic disadvantage and body mass over the life course in women and men : results from the Northern Swedish Cohort
- 2012
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Ingår i: European Journal of Public Health. - Oxford : Oxford University Press. - 1101-1262 .- 1464-360X. ; 22:3, s. 322-327
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Obesity and body mass in adulthood relate both to current and to childhood socio-economic status, particularly in women, but the underlying life course processes are not known. This study aims at examining whether the life course socio-economic status—body mass association in women and men is explained by the cumulative risk or adolescent sensitive period models whether associations are similar at different life course stages; and whether health behaviours explain the associations. Methods: A total of 476 women and 517 men participated in this 27-year prospective cohort study (participation rate 93%). Body mass index was assessed at the age of 16 and 43 years and self-reported at the age of 21 and 30 years. Information on socio-economic status by own or parental (age 16 years) occupation, smoking, snuff, alcohol, physical activity and diet was collected at each age. Results: In women, cumulative socio-economic status and socio-economic status in adolescence were related to body mass index at the age of 16, 21, 30 and 43 years and to the 27-year change in body mass, independently of health behaviours and for adolescent socio-economic status also of later socio-economic attainment. Associations were generally stronger for body mass at older age. In men, associations were mostly non-significant, although health behaviours contributed strongly to body mass. Conclusions: In women, both the sensitive period (in adolescence) and cumulative risk models explain the socio-economic–body mass link. Efforts to reduce the social inequality in body mass in women should be directed at the early life course, but focusing on unhealthy behaviours might not be a sufficient approach.
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| 4. |
- Gustafsson, Per E., et al.
(författare)
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Socioeconomic disadvantage in adolescent women and metabolic syndrome in mid-adulthood : an examination of pathways of embodiment in the Northern Swedish Cohort
- 2012
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Ingår i: Social Science and Medicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 0277-9536 .- 1873-5347. ; 74:10, s. 1630-1638
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Research indicates that disadvantaged socioeconomic status in childhood or adolescence increases specifically women's risk for developing metabolic syndrome in adulthood. Construing this observation as an expression of embodiment, the present study aims at examining the 'social chain of risk' and the 'reproduction' hypotheses as pathways of this embodiment. Participants were all women in the Northern Swedish Cohort, a 27-year prospective Swedish cohort, with data collection in 1981 at age 16 years (n = 1083, 506 women), and follow-up at age 21, 30 and 43 (n = 482 women) years. The analytical sample was n = 399 women (79% of the original cohort). Socioeconomic disadvantage was defined as parental manual occupation at age 16, and metabolic syndrome according to standardized criteria at age 43. The social chain of risk was operationalized as accumulated social and material adversities at age 16, 21, 30 and 43 years, and reproductive factors by age at menarche, early childbearing (before age 22), and number of children at age 43. In logistic regression with metabolic syndrome as the outcome, the OR for adolescent socioeconomic status was rendered non-significant and reduced by 21.6% after adjustment for cumulative adversity over the life course. Of the reproductive factors, only age at menarche lead to an OR reduction at all (by 43%). Our study suggests that women's embodiment of socioeconomic disadvantage during upbringing is partly explained by adversity over the subsequent life course. Future studies should incorporate the living conditions of women over the life course as a possible pathway whereby early life socioeconomic conditions are embodied. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 5. |
- Gustafsson, Per E., et al.
(författare)
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The association between long-term accumulation of temporary employment, the cortisol awakening response and circadian cortisol levels
- 2012
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Ingår i: Psychoneuroendocrinology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0306-4530 .- 1873-3360. ; 37:6, s. 789-800
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Temporary employment is an increasingly common contract type, which has not been investigated in a psychoneuroendocrinological context despite previous observations of associations between adverse work and employment conditions and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysregulations. The present study aims to examine whether the 12-year accumulation of temporary employment is related to circadian cortisol levels, and if any association is independent of current employment conditions. Participants were drawn from the prospective Northern Swedish Cohort (n = 791, 74% of the original cohort). At age 43 years, retrospective reports of employments over the last 12 years and of current social conditions were collected by questionnaire, and one-day salivary cortisol profile was measured (at awakening, +15 min post-awakening, pre-lunch, bedtime). Results indicated a gradually higher magnitude of the cortisol awakening response (CAR) in subjects with no (0 months in temporary employment; mean CAR = 34%), moderate (1-25 months in temporary employment; mean CAR = 41%) and heavy (>25 months in temporary employment; mean CAR = 51%) exposure (p = .020), remaining after adjustment for potential confounders and for current employment conditions (p = .028). The higher CAR was explained by lower awakening rather than higher post-awakening cortisol levels. Cortisol levels at all times of the day except post-awakening displayed tendencies to negative relations to temporary employment; as indicated by a lower Area Under of Curve (regression coefficient = 5.0%, p = .038 after adjustment). This study thus suggests that the long-term exposure to temporary employment might confer HPA dysregulations in the form of increased dynamics of the CAR and circadian suppression. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 6. |
- Westerlund, Hugo, et al.
(författare)
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Social Adversity in Adolescence Increases the Physiological Vulnerability to Job Strain in Adulthood : A Prospective Population-Based Study
- 2012
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 7:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: It has been argued that the association between job strain and health could be confounded by early life exposures, and studies have shown early adversity to increase individual vulnerability to later stress. We therefore investigated if early life exposure to adversity increases the individual's physiological vulnerability job strain in adulthood. Methodology/Principal Findings: In a population-based cohort (343 women and 330 men, 83% of the eligible participants), we examined the association between on the one hand exposure to adversity in adolescence, measured at age 16, and job strain measured at age 43, and on the other hand allostatic load at age 43. Adversity was operationalised as an index comprising residential mobility and crowding, parental loss, parental unemployment, and parental physical and mental illness (including substance abuse). Allostatic load summarised body fat, blood pressure, inflammatory markers, glucose, blood lipids, and cortisol regulation. There was an interaction between adversity in adolescence and job strain (B = 0.09, 95% CI 0.02 to 0.16 after adjustment for socioeconomic status), particularly psychological demands, indicating that job strain was associated with increased allostatic load only among participants with adversity in adolescence. Job strain was associated with lower allostatic load in men (beta = -0.20, 95% CI -0.35 to -0.06). Conclusions/Significance: Exposure to adversity in adolescence was associated with increased levels of biological stress among those reporting job strain in mid-life, indicating increased vulnerability to environmental stressors.
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