A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Differential effects of adolescent health behaviours on adult cardiometabolic health by parental and neighbourhood socioeconomic background
Authors: Jackisch, Josephine; Noor, Nazihah; Raitakari, Olli T; Lehtimäki, Terho; Kähönen, Mika; Cullati, Stéphane; Delpierre, Cyrille; Kivimäki, Mika; Carmeli, Cristian
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Publication year: 2025
Journal: European Journal of Public Health
Article number: ckaf212
ISSN: 1101-1262
eISSN: 1464-360X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckaf212
Publication's open availability at the time of reporting: Open Access
Publication channel's open availability : Open Access publication channel
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckaf212
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/505609407
Self-archived copy's licence: CC BY
Self-archived copy's version: Publisher`s PDF
Adolescent healthy behaviours may improve cardiometabolic health in adulthood differently across socioeconomic groups. We aimed to quantify the effects of adolescent healthy behaviours on multiple biomarkers of adult cardiometabolic health by socioeconomic backgrounds. We used a population-based cohort of Finnish adolescents from the Young Finns Study (1980–89, n = 2984) followed into adulthood (2001–11). Healthy behaviours (no smoking, no alcohol consumption, sufficient physical activity, daily fruit and vegetable consumption) and socioeconomic backgrounds (parental- and neighbourhood-related) were measured in adolescence (12–18 years). Biomarkers of adiposity [waist circumference, body mass index (BMI)], cardiovascular [blood pressure (BP), cholesterol, apolipoprotein B], and metabolic [plasma glucose, insulin resistance] outcomes were measured in adulthood (33–40 years). We estimated conditional average effects of healthy behaviours via inverse-probability-weighted marginal structural models. Sufficient physical activity lowered adiposity biomarkers to a greater extent among adolescents from disadvantaged neighbourhood, with additional decreases of 2.2 cm [95% confidence interval (CI): −0.1 to 4.7] in waist circumference and 1 kg/m2 (95% CI: 0.2 to 1.9) in BMI. In contrast, daily fruit and vegetable consumption lowered BP with additional 2.0–3.6 mmHg (95% CI: 0.3 to 6.1) among adolescents with advantaged either parental or neighbourhood socioeconomic backgrounds. There was little evidence for differential effects on other outcomes and for no smoking and alcohol. Socioeconomic backgrounds modified the effects of adolescent physical activity and fruit and vegetable consumption on adult cardiometabolic health. These findings indicate that population-wide interventions promoting healthy behaviours during adolescence have the potential to either mitigate or exacerbate long-term socioeconomic inequalities in cardiometabolic health.
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Funding information in the publication:
This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant number: 208205). The Young Finns Study has been financially supported by the Academy of Finland: grants 356405, 322098, 286284, 134309 (Eye), 126925, 121584, 124282, 129378 (Salve), 117797 (Gendi), and 141071 (Skidi); the Social Insurance Institution of Finland; Competitive State Research Financing of the Expert Responsibility area of Kuopio, Tampere and Turku University Hospitals (grant X51001); Juho Vainio Foundation; Paavo Nurmi Foundation; Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research; Finnish Cultural Foundation; The Sigrid Juselius Foundation; Tampere Tuberculosis Foundation; Emil Aaltonen Foundation; Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation; Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation; Diabetes Research Foundation of Finnish Diabetes Association; EU Horizon 2020 (grant 755320 for TAXINOMISIS and grant 848146 for To Aition); European Research Council (grant 742927 for MULTIEPIGEN project); Tampere University Hospital Supporting Foundation; Finnish Society of Clinical Chemistry; the Cancer Foundation Finland; European Union (grant number: 101137278 for CVDLink) and the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation. M.K. was supported by Wellcome Trust, UK (221854/Z/20/Z), National Institute on Aging (NIH), US (R01AG056477), Medical Research Council, UK (MR/R024227/1, MR/Y014154/1), and Academy of Finland (350426). Funders of the study were not involved in study design and was not involved in any parts of the study, including data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of the report.
