Table 2.

Adjusted Associations of Education, Income, and Wealth with Computed Tomography Measures of Emphysema in the MESA Lung Study, 2000–2006

	Difference per SES category*
	β (95% CI)	p-value
Percent Emphysema
Education	1.1 (0.8 to 1.5)	< 0.001
Income	0.4 (0.1 to 0.8)	0.012
Wealth	0.6 (0.3 to 1.0)	0.001
FEV1 (ml)
Education	17 (5 to 29)	0.006
Income	7 (−5 to 19)	0.269
Wealth	16 (3 to 29)	0.018
FVC (ml)
Education	25 (10 to 40)	0.001
Income	2 (−13 to 16)	0.819
Wealth	18 (2 to 34)	0.030
FEV1/FVC Ratio (%)
Education	−0.1 (−0.3 to 0.2)	0.544
Income	0.2 (−0.0 to 0.4)	0.062
Wealth	0.2 (−0.1 to 0.4)	0.221

Notes: FEV₁ indicates forced expiratory volume, 1 second; FVC, forced vital capacity; values shown are regression coefficients and 95% confidence intervals for an additional increment of a grouped linear variable with a range of 0 through 4 for education (less than a high school education; high school degree; some college; completed college; graduate degree), income (lowest quintile, < $9000 per person annually; highest quintile, > $40 000 per person annually) or wealth (no wealth indicators reported; only one indicator reported; two indicators reported; three indicators reported; car ownership, home ownership, financial investments, and real estate investments all reported); and the difference between extreme categories can be calculated by multiplying difference coefficient by 4; bold face font indicates statistical significance

^*Models included adjustment for age; sex; race; ethnicity; whether the participant was born in the US; height; body mass index (BMI); history of hay fever; history of asthma before age 45; family history of emphysema among siblings; occupational exposure to dust; residential exposure to air pollution; environmental tobacco exposure in the childhood home, adult home, or workplace; smoking status; pack-years, and CT equipment type if applicable