Differences by socioeconomic position (SEP) have been consistently reported for several health outcomes, including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and mortality. SEP is a general term that is used to refer to the different positions of individuals in the social and economic hierarchy. Different measures have been used in epidemiological research to assess SEP. In the EPIC study, education level was generally used as the indicator of social position, both in studies where SEP was the main exposure and in studies where SEP was used as a confounding variable. However, different measurements of SEP are possible from the baseline EPIC database, such as job position, socioeconomic trajectories, and anthropometric measures (e.g. height, length of legs).
Therefore, an important aim of the Socioeconomic Factors and Health Working Group is to evaluate the possibility of using different measures of SEP in the EPIC study and to evaluate their association with health outcomes. This may better clarify the mechanisms through which SEP has an effect on cancer and other chronic diseases, leading to an understanding of which of the two main pathways is more relevant case by case: (a) the action of SEP on the risk factors, or (b) the action of SEP through a different modulation of the global physiological deregulation across the life-course. Another aim is to support the EPIC network with standard operating procedures to analyse data on SEP both as the main exposure and as a confounder in a model.
Selected publications:
Contact details/Working Group leaders
Carlotta Sacerdote, PhD
AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino
and
CPO Piemonte
Turin, Italy
carlotta.sacerdote@cpo.it
Professor Fulvio Ricceri, MSc, PhD
Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences
University of Turin
Regione Gonzole 10
Orbassano (TO), Italy
fulvio.ricceri@unito.it