Costa Dora L, Helmchen Lorens A, Wilson Sven
Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, E52-274C, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Aug 14;104(33):13219-24. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0611077104. Epub 2007 Aug 8.
We document racial trends in chronic conditions among older men between 1910 and 2004. The 1910 black arteriosclerosis rate was six times higher than the white 2004 rate and more than two times higher than the 2004 black rate. We argue that blacks' greater lifelong burden of infection led to high arteriosclerosis rates in 1910. Infectious disease, especially respiratory infections at older ages and rheumatic fever and syphilis at younger ages, predicted arteriosclerosis in 1910, suggesting that arteriosclerosis has an infectious cause. Additional risk factors for arteriosclerosis were being born in the second relative to the fourth quarter, consistent with studies implying that atherogenesis begins in utero, and a low body mass index, consistent with an infectious disease origin of arteriosclerosis.
我们记录了1910年至2004年间老年男性慢性病的种族趋势。1910年黑人的动脉硬化率比2004年白人的动脉硬化率高六倍，比2004年黑人的动脉硬化率高出两倍多。我们认为，黑人一生中更大的感染负担导致了1910年的高动脉硬化率。传染病，尤其是老年人的呼吸道感染以及年轻人的风湿热和梅毒，预示了1910年的动脉硬化，这表明动脉硬化有感染性病因。动脉硬化的其他风险因素包括相对于第四季度出生在第二季度，这与暗示动脉粥样硬化发生于子宫内的研究一致，以及低体重指数，这与动脉硬化的感染性病因一致。
