Commenting on the public health implications of the findings, the study's principal investigator Dr David Batty said that the individual skills reflected in a person's IQ may be important in the management of personal cardiovascular risk.

"From a public health perspective, there is the possibility that IQ can be increased, with some mixed results from trials of early learning and school readiness programmes," said Dr Batty. "It may also be worthwhile for health promotion campaigns to be planned with consideration of individual cognition levels."

He also noted that IQ may well be one important factor behind the place of social class as a fundamental determinant of inequalities in health. So far, said Dr Batty, explanations for such socio-economic gradients in health have traditionally focused on access to resources (such as education and income), physical exposures at home and at work (such as housing conditions and toxins), and health related behaviours (such as smoking and diet). But studies show that such factors do not fully explain class-based differentials in health. A low IQ, he explained, as suggested in this study, may be a further independent explanation.

SOURCE Britain's Medical Research Council