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Low socioeconomic status (SES) during childhood and adolescence has been found to predict greater susceptibility to common cold viruses in adults. Here, we test whether low childhood SES is associated with shorter leukocyte telomere length in adulthood, and whether telomere length mediates the association between childhood SES and susceptibility to acute upper respiratory disease in adulthood.

At baseline, 196 healthy volunteers reported whether they currently owned their home and, for each year of their childhood, whether their parents owned the family home. Volunteers also had blood drawn for assessment of specific antibody to the challenge virus, and for CD8⁺CD28⁻ T-lymphocyte telomere length (in a subset, n = 135). They were subsequently quarantined in a hotel, exposed to a virus (rhinovirus [RV] 39) that causes a common cold and followed for infection and illness (clinical cold) over five post …