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Published on: August 7, 2017

Influence of socioeconomic status trajectories on innate immune responsiveness in children

Meghan B Azad1, Yuri Lissitsyn, Gregory E Miller

  • 1Women and Children's Health Research Institute, Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Plos One
|June 12, 2012
PubMed

Insights

Children with persistently low socioeconomic status (SES) show heightened innate immune activation. However, improving SES during childhood can normalize immune responses, suggesting interventions can mitigate poverty's biological impact.

Area of Science:

  • Child Health
  • Immunology
  • Social Epidemiology

Background:

  • Socioeconomic status (SES) is linked to poorer health outcomes.
  • Biological mechanisms connecting SES and health inequalities in children are not well understood.
  • Early-life immune activation may predict future inflammation and chronic disease.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the impact of early-life socioeconomic status (SES) trajectories on innate immune activation in children.
  • To explore potential biological pathways linking SES disparities to health inequalities.

Main Methods:

  • Analyzed stimulated interleukin-6 (IL-6) production as a measure of immune responsiveness in 267 Canadian schoolchildren.
  • Determined childhood SES trajectories using longitudinal latent-class modeling of housing data.
  • Employed multivariate regression, adjusting for potential confounders.

Main Results:

  • Persistently low SES was associated with significantly higher innate immune responsiveness (over twice that of high-SES children).
  • Children with increasing SES trajectories showed normalized immune responses, similar to high-SES peers.
  • Low SES amplified immune responses in overweight children; First Nations and urban children with asthma also showed increased responsiveness.

Conclusions:

  • Differential innate immune activation is implicated in the SES-health outcome association.
  • Socioeconomic status (SES) interventions in childhood may reverse or limit the biological impacts of early poverty exposure.
  • Targeting immune activation could be a strategy to address health disparities linked to socioeconomic factors.
Abstract

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