According to research from the University of East Anglia, blood tests for ‘biomarkers’ such as cholesterol and inflammation could predict whether you will be disabled in five years.
A new study shows how people’s biological health can predict disability and healthcare demand in five years’ time.
But the researchers also found that people on higher-incomes were more likely to seek GP appointments and outpatient treatments for their medical problems—with evidence of pro-rich inequity across all types of health service use.
“We know that the poorest people in England miss out on more than a decade of good health compared with the richest.” said Dr. Apostolos Davillas from UEA’s Norwich Medical School.
“We wanted to find out more about the links between people’s social status and their future health—and see whether blood tests could predict future disability and use of health care services.”
The researchers looked at elevated bloodstream ‘biomarkers’ – these are the tell-tale markers linked to different diseases, and they are an objective measure of health.
Biomarkers can tell researchers a lot about what is going on in people’s bodies—even before symptoms of disease begin. Testing for ‘bad’ cholesterol in the bloodstream for example can show a risk of heart disease.
Dr. Davillas’ previous research has shown how biomarkers for stress are linked with socioeconomic position and revealed some of the hidden mechanisms connecting social inequality to health.
The researchers studied blood biomarkers from 5,286 participants involved in Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study.
They looked at things like cholesterol, liver and kidney function and inflammation—the body’s response to infections or chronic stress.
They also looked at measures of obesity, grip strength, resting heart rate, blood pressure, and lung function among the participants.
“What we found is that underlying biomarker differences are linked with future disability—and that we could actually predict people’s level of disability in five years’ time, based on the biomarkers in their blood.” said Dr. Davillas.
“We also found that people’s biological health is linked with future demand on healthcare services such as GP and outpatient consultations, as well as time spent in hospital.
“We tried to investigate the mechanism for why this happens and found that people with disability biological health may develop disability in five years’ time—resulting in increased health care and social needs.”
‘Biomarkers, disability and health care demand’ is published in the December issue of the journal Economics & Human Biology.
