Clusters of parental socioeconomic status in early childhood and inherited risk for cerebrovascular disease until mid-life-Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966

Veronika Hyytiäinen; Leena Ala-Mursula; Petteri Oura; Markus Paananen; Ville Karhunen; Harri Rusanen; Mirjam I Geerlings; Jouko Miettunen; Ina Rissanen

doi:10.1177/17474930241282521

Clusters of parental socioeconomic status in early childhood and inherited risk for cerebrovascular disease until mid-life-Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966

Int J Stroke. 2024 Sep 30:17474930241282521. doi: 10.1177/17474930241282521. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Veronika Hyytiäinen^{1

2}, Leena Ala-Mursula^{1

2}, Petteri Oura^{2

3

4

5}, Markus Paananen^{1

2}, Ville Karhunen^{1

6}, Harri Rusanen^{2

7}, Mirjam I Geerlings^{8

9

10

11}, Jouko Miettunen^{1

2}, Ina Rissanen^{1

2

8

11}

Affiliations

¹ Research Unit of Population Health, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
² Medical Research Center Oulu, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland.
³ Research Unit of Health Sciences and Technology, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
⁴ Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
⁵ Forensic Medicine Unit, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland.
⁶ Research Unit of Mathematical Sciences, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
⁷ Department of Neurology, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland.
⁸ Department of General Practice, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
⁹ Amsterdam Public Health, Aging & Later life and Personalized Medicine, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
¹⁰ Amsterdam Neuroscience; Neurodegeneration, and Mood, Anxiety, Psychosis, Stress, and Sleep, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
¹¹ Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, UMC Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

PMID: 39215637
DOI: 10.1177/17474930241282521

Abstract

Background and aims: The incidence of cerebrovascular disease (CVD) is rising among young adults (< 55 years). The risk for CVD starts to form in early childhood and is comprised of genetic and environmental risk factors. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between early family socioeconomic status (SES), inherited risk, and CVD until midlife.

Methods: In the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 of 12,058 children, individuals were followed from gestational period up to 54 years. We used previously published early family SES clusters, based on latent class analysis of a wide set of prenatally collected variables. We investigated inherited risk with polygenic risk score (PRS) and parental CVDs during follow-up. The associations of the five distinct clusters, inherited risk, and consequent risk for various types of CVDs until middle age were analyzed with Cox regression. All analyses were conducted first in the whole sample and then stratified by sex as is recommended in cardiovascular studies.

Results: During the follow-up of 586,943 person-years, 512 CVDs occurred. No clear association between SES clusters and CVD were found. Higher PRS associated with any CVD (hazard ratio (HR) per 1 SD increase: 1.15; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.02-1.31), and ischemic CVD (HR: 1.21; 1.05-1.40). We found no combined associations of early family SES and inherited risk for CVD.

Conclusions: Inherited risk was associated with the risk for CVD in mid-life in Finnish population. We found no clear connection with early family SES and CVD. Being born to a specific SES group did not increase the effect of inherited risk.

Data access statement: NFBC1966 data are available from the University of Oulu, Infrastructure for Population Studies for researchers who meet the criteria for accessing confidential data. In the use of data, we follow the EU general data protection regulation (679/2016) and Finnish Data Protection Act. Permission to use the data can be applied for research purposes from https://www.oulu.fi/nfbc.

Keywords: Cohort studies; cerebrovascular disease; parent–offspring linkage; polygenic risk score; socioeconomic status; stroke.