Socioeconomic Status Is Associated With Antibody Levels Against Vaccine Preventable Diseases in the Netherlands

Background: We investigated whether low socioeconomic status (SES), which is associated with reduced health and life expectancy, might play a role in increased risk for infectious diseases. Therefore, we explored the association between SES and immunoglobulin G (IgG) levels against various pathogens.Methods: We analyzed the association between SES [educational level and net household income (NHI)] and serum IgG concentration against measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, Haemophilus influenzae type B (HiB), pneumococcus, meningococcus serogroup C (MenC), and cytomegalovirus (CMV) collected within... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Joske Hoes
Anna G. C. Boef
Mirjam J. Knol
Hester E. de Melker
Liesbeth Mollema
Fiona R. M. van der Klis
Nynke Y. Rots
Debbie van Baarle
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2018
Reihe/Periodikum: Frontiers in Public Health, Vol 6 (2018)
Verlag/Hrsg.: Frontiers Media S.A.
Schlagwörter: vaccine preventable diseases / immunoglobulin G / socioeconomic status / antibody level / cytomegalovirus / Public aspects of medicine / RA1-1270
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-27578614
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2018.00209

Background: We investigated whether low socioeconomic status (SES), which is associated with reduced health and life expectancy, might play a role in increased risk for infectious diseases. Therefore, we explored the association between SES and immunoglobulin G (IgG) levels against various pathogens.Methods: We analyzed the association between SES [educational level and net household income (NHI)] and serum IgG concentration against measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, Haemophilus influenzae type B (HiB), pneumococcus, meningococcus serogroup C (MenC), and cytomegalovirus (CMV) collected within a national cross-sectional serosurvey (2006/2007) using linear regression analyses among non-vaccinated individuals.Results: Higher educational level was associated with higher IgG concentrations against measles (GMC ratio 1.34, 95% CI 1.18–1.53) and rubella (1.13, 1.02–1.25) compared to low education level. In contrast, higher education level was associated with lower IgG concentrations against pneumococcus (0.78, 0.70–0.88), MenC (0.54, 0.44–0.68), and CMV (0.23, 0.18–0.31) compared to low education level. This pattern was also evident when NHI was used as SES indicator.Conclusion: Our study suggests that socioeconomic status is associated with antibody levels in a pathogen-dependent manner. The results suggest that differences in serological response upon infection or differences in exposure might be involved in the variation in IgG levels between SES groups.