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DOES LOWER SUBJECTIVE SOCIAL STATUS YIELD RISKIER BIOMARKER PROFILES?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2014

OMER GERSTEN ,
PAOLA S. TIMIRAS  and
W. THOMAS BOYCE
OMER GERSTEN*
Affiliation:
Department of Demography, University of California, Berkeley, USA
PAOLA S. TIMIRAS
Affiliation:
Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, USA
W. THOMAS BOYCE
Affiliation:
Division of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco, USA
*
1Corresponding author. Email: omer@demog.berkeley.edu
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Summary

Both objective and, more recently, subjective measures of low social status have been linked to poor health outcomes. It is unclear, however, through which precise physiological mechanisms such standing may influence health, although it has been proposed that those of lower status may have biomarker profiles that are more dysregulated (and hence pose a greater risk for poorer health). The main objective of this study was to investigate whether lower subjective social standing is associated with riskier neuroendocrine biomarker profiles. Data were from the Social Environment and Biomarkers of Aging Study (SEBAS), a nationally representative survey of Taiwanese men and women (ages 54–91) conducted in Taiwan in 2000. Five neuroendocrine markers (cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS), adrenaline, noradrenaline and dopamine) were analysed both separately and collectively in an index termed neuroendocrine allostatic load (NAL) in relation to status – both self-reported and as measured through objective socioeconomic status (SES) indicators. For the biomarker DHEAS, some connection was found between its levels and the measures of status, but for the other markers and the NAL index almost no connection was found. The overall negative finding of this paper would be further supported with more and different measures of neuroendocrine system function and a reordering of the subjective social status questions in the survey such that the one probing about status in the community (that has no prompt) was asked before the one probing about status in all of Taiwan (which has a SES prompt).

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 47 , Issue 6 , November 2015 , pp. 746 - 761
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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