Social climbing 'good exercise'

By Stephen Adams, Medical Correspondent

Those who are upwardly mobile cut their chances of suffering from high blood pressure by a fifth, compared with siblings who stay on the same rung.

While the link between socio-economic position and high blood pressure is well established, this Swedish study is the first to show that crossing the class divide can benefit health in such a way.

Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm drew their conclusions by examining 6,000 pairs of same-sex twins born between 1926 and 1958. They looked at their parents’ jobs, classifying them as having either “low” or “high” socio-

economic status and compared this with the jobs their children held decades later.

The participants’ health, including information on blood pressure, was assessed in 1973 through a postal questionnaire and between 1998 and 2002 by telephone interview.

Unskilled, blue collar and clerical jobs were put in the “low” bracket, and intermediate and high-level white collar jobs in the “high” category.

After accounting for factors such as age, height, weight and whether or not a participant smoked, the researchers calculated that those who rose through the social bands were 18 per cent less likely to have high blood pressure, compared with twins who did not.

However, the study also warned that those who slipped down the ranks increased their risk of suffering from the condition by 22 per cent.

The researchers from the Swedish institute’s department of medical epidemiology and biostatistics concluded: “Upward social mobility decreased the odds of hypertension, and in the downward mobile group, there was an indication of increased odds.”

Because the study examined twins, rather than simply comparing people from similar social backgrounds, the researchers were able to say with confidence that the changes in blood pressure were due to what had happened during their lives.

Taking the group as a whole, they found that lower social standing increased the risk of high blood pressure by 42 per cent, according to the report published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Having high blood pressure can put extra strain on the heart and its vessels, causing them to become weaker or damaged, says the Blood Pressure Association.

It can lead to heart attacks, heart failure and is the leading cause of strokes. It has also been linked to some forms of dementia and kidney disease.

It is likely that the risk of blood pressure falls among the upwardly mobile because such people tend to take up healthy habits, such as eating less high fat, high salt foods and exercising more. Telegraph