Atherosclerosis precursors in Finnish children and adolescents. IX. Socioeconomic status and risk factors of coronary heart disease

Abstract

Relationships between parental Socioeconomic status and CHD risk factors were examined in the Finnish Multicentre Study on Atherosclerosis Precursors comprising a material of 3,596 study subjects aged 3–18 years in five university cities and 12 rural communes. The work is based on the hypothesis that Socioeconomic status has associations with important lifestyle factors related to the evolution of CHD risk factors. Although there is some indication that parental status variables correlate with CHD risk factors, the majority of the data point to the conclusion that Socioeconomic status indicators have little relevance for children's CHD risk factor levels. The main exceptions to the above stated were the lower P/S ratio of the diet in farmers’children compared to the other Socioeconomic groups in all age cohorts, and the higher serum total and LDL‐cholesterol levels in the farmers’children as compared to the others in some age cohorts. The explanation to these findings is the dietary practice in farmers’households, full milk and butter being favoured instead of other milk types and vegetable margarine, respectively. Our findings illustrate the importance of the families’dietary habits with regard to certain CHD risk factors.