Background to LcSES

LcSES is an ancillary study to the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities(ARIC) study, a large cohort study of middle-aged African-American and white men and women designed to investigate the etiology and natural history of atherosclerosis and its sequelae. Participants were interviewed and examined at baseline, Visit 1, (1987-89) and again at three triennial examinations: Visit 2 (1990-1992), Visit 3 (1993-1995), Visit 4 (1996-1998). Additionally, participants are contacted annually by phone so that their vital and health status can be updated.

At each of the four ARIC examinations, information on mid and later life SES was collected from participants. The LcSES study collected (2001-2002) additional information about earlier life socioeconomic circumstances. This includes individual-level SES related circumstances of parents or caretakers when the participant was a child (educational attainment, occupational status, home ownership) as well as well as their own exposures earlier in adulthood (home ownership, military service, occupational status). So that we can also evaluate the impact of their earlier socio-environmental exposures, we also collected information on residential histories (during early childhood and at ages 30, 40, and 50).

The core of our multidisciplinary study team is based in the Department of Epidemiology, in the School of Public Health, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Additional team members are from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

Gerardo Heiss, MD PhD Principal Investigator

Eric Whitsel, MD MPH Co-Investigator

Anna Kucharska-Newton, PhD MPH Co-Investigator