Differences in socioeconomic status (SES) are known to be linked to differences in the risk of developing disease. While people with lower SES are more likely to develop complex diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, those with a higher SES are at increased risk of developing certain types of cancer. Using biobank and national register data, researchers from Finland have now found that people with lower SES (educational achievement and occupation) have a greater genetic susceptibility to develop many other complex diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lung cancer, depression, and alcohol use disorder, as well as Type 2 diabetes, whereas those with a higher SES are more at risk of developing breast, prostate, and all cancers.
Dr. Fiona Hagenbeek, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), University of Helsinki, Finland, who will present her group's work at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today (Sunday), says that these promising initial results mean that it is likely that polygenic risk scores, which measure an individual's risk of a particular disease based on genetic information, could be added to the screening protocols for multiple diseases and in several countries. "Understanding that the impact of polygenic scores on disease risk is context-dependent may lead to further stratified screening protocols," she says.
"For example, in the future, screening protocols for breast cancer may be.
