Role of Persistent Pathogens, Total Pathogen Burden and Inflammation in Determining Risk for All-Cause and Cardiovascular Disease-related Mortality in the United States.

TL;DRAbstract

Although life expectancy has steadily increased in the United States (U.S.), socioeconomic disparities in risk for mortality persist, indicating the need to identify novel risk factors linking socioeconomic position (SEP) and mortality in the U.S. Several persistent pathogens pattern by SEP in early life and have been implicated in cardiovascular disease (CVD) and other chronic diseases later in life via pathogen-specific effects and non-specific inflammatory pathways. Therefore, individual persistent pathogens and increased total pathogen burden may serve as novel risk factors for mortality. Using data from a U.S. representative sample of persons 25 years of age and older from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III (1988-1994), we examined the association between cytomegalovirus (CMV) seropositivity, levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of systemic inflammation, and risk for all-cause/CVD-related mortality. In addition, we examined the association between sum

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