© 2004 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd & British Thoracic Society
EDITORIAL
Socioeconomic position and pulmonary function
Examining the influence of early life socioeconomic position on pulmonary function across the life span: where do we go from here?
1 Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
2 Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
3 Department of Society, Human Development, and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr B Jackson
Channing Laboratory, 181 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA; benita.jackson@channing.harvard.edu
Factors to consider in future research on the relationship between early life socioeconomic position and adult lung function
Keywords: socioeconomic conditions; lung function; poverty; childhood
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Consistent with the Barker hypothesis of the early life origins of adult chronic disease,1 a growing body of research suggests a relationship between social disadvantage in early life and adverse health outcomes.2 In this issue of Thorax a paper by Lawlor et al3 presents evidence for inverse associations between markers of childhood socioeconomic position (SEP) and later life pulmonary function. The authors found that, as the number of indicators of childhood poverty increased, the levels of forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC), and forced mid expiratory flow rate (FEF25–75) decreased. Limitations of the study included a moderate response rate (60%), possible survivor bias (women from poor backgrounds may be more likely to die prematurely), and recall bias (indicators of childhood SEP were determined retrospectively by self-recall later in life). Yet, because each of these factors would lead to
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Hegewald, M. J., Crapo, R. O.
(2007). Socioeconomic Status and Lung Function. Chest
132: 1608-1614
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Wright, R. J.
(2005). Make No Bones About It: Increasing Epidemiologic Evidence Links Vitamin D to Pulmonary Function and COPD. Chest
128: 3781-3783
[Full Text]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- Citation Map
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
