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Background Subjective social status (SSS) refers to a person's perception of their social rank relative to others and is cross-sectionally linked to systemic inflammation independently of objective socioeconomic status. Purpose We test the extent to which SSS relates to multiyear changes in inflammation, or if associations differ by race or sex. Methods Healthy adults (N = 331; 30–51 years) completed a baseline visit and 278 participants returned for a second visit 2.85 years later. At both visits, participants underwent a fasting blood draw and completed community (SSSC) and US (SSSUS) versions of the MacArthur Scale. Multiple linear regression analyses examined change in interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) predicted by each type of SSS, adjusting for time between visits, sex, race, age, body mass index, smoking, baseline inflammation, and objective socioeconomic status. Additional analyses further adjusted for hopelessness and depressive symptoms. Interactions examined moderations by sex and race. Results Lower SSSC was longitudinally associated with greater IL-6 independently of all covariates, including education and income (β = −0.06), hopelessness (β = −0.06), and depressive symptoms (β = −0.06). Lower SSSUS was longitudinally associated with greater IL-6 independently of demographic covariates including education and income (β = −0.06), but was slightly attenuated after adjusting for hopelessness (β = −0.06) and depressive symptoms (β = −0.06). There were no associations for CRP or moderation by race or sex. Conclusions Lower SSS may be associated with greater circulating markers of inflammation over time as suggested by increases in IL-6. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tested whether brain activity patterns evoked by affective stimuli relate to individual differences in an indicator of pre-clinical atherosclerosis: carotid artery intima-media thickness (CA-IMT). Adults (aged 30–54 years) completed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) tasks that involved viewing three sets of affective stimuli. Two sets included facial expressions of emotion, and one set included neutral and unpleasant images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Cross-validated, multivariate and machine learning models showed that individual differences in CA-IMT were partially predicted by brain activity patterns evoked by unpleasant IAPS images, even after accounting for age, sex and known cardiovascular disease risk factors. CA-IMT was also predicted by brain activity patterns evoked by angry and fearful faces from one of the two stimulus sets of facial expressions, but this predictive association did not persist after accounting for known cardiovascular risk factors. The reliability (internal consistency) of brain activity patterns evoked by affective stimuli may have constrained their prediction of CA-IMT. Distributed brain activity patterns could comprise affective neural correlates of pre-clinical atherosclerosis; however, the interpretation of such correlates may depend on their psychometric properties, as well as the influence of other cardiovascular risk factors and specific affective cues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]