Racial discrimination during middle age predicts higher serum phosphorylated tau and neurofilament light chain levels a decade later: A study of aging black Americans

INTRODUCTION

Recent evidence suggests that exposure to the stress of racism may increase the risk of dementia for Black Americans.

METHODS

The present study used 17 years of data from a sample of 255 Black Americans to investigate the extent to which exposure to racial discrimination predicts subsequent changes in serum Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC) biomarkers: serum phosphorylated tau181(p-tau181), neurofilament light (NfL), and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). We hypothesized that racial discrimination assessed during middle age would predict increases in these serum biomarkers as the participants aged into their 60s.

RESULTS

Our findings indicate that exposure to various forms of racial discrimination during a person's 40s and early 50s predicts an 11-year increase in both serum p-tau181 and NfL. Racial discrimination was not associated with subsequent levels of GFAP.

DISCUSSION

These findings suggest that racial discrimination in midlife may contribute to increased AD pathology and neurodegeneration later in life.

HIGHLIGHTS

A 17-year longitudinal study of Black Americans. Assessments of change in serum p-tau181, neurofilament light, and glial fibrillary acidic protein. Exposure to racial discrimination during middle age predicted increases in p-tau181 and neurofilament light. Education was positively related to both p-tau181 and exposure to racial discrimination.

Specifying the psychosocial pathways whereby child and adolescent adversity shape adult health outcomes

BACKGROUND

Social scientists generally agree that health disparities are produced, at least in part, by adverse social experiences, especially during childhood and adolescence. Building on this research, we use an innovative method to measure early adversity while drawing upon a biopsychosocial perspective on health to formulate a model that specifies indirect pathways whereby childhood and adolescent adversity become biologically embedded and influence adult health.

METHOD

Using nearly 20 years of longitudinal data from 382 Black Americans, we use repeated-measures latent class analysis (RMLCA) to construct measures of childhood/adolescent adversities and their trajectories. Then, we employ structural equation modeling to examine the direct and indirect effects of childhood/adolescent adversity on health outcomes in adulthood through psychosocial maladjustment.

RESULTS

RMLCA identified two classes for each component of childhood/adolescent adversity across the ages of 10 to 18, suggesting that childhood/adolescent social adversities exhibit a prolonged heterogeneous developmental trajectory. The models controlled for early and adult mental health, sociodemographic and health-related covariates. Psychosocial maladjustment, measured by low self-esteem, depressive and anxiety symptoms, and lack of self-control, mediated the relationship between childhood/adolescent adversity, especially parental hostility, racial discrimination, and socioeconomic class, and both self-reported illness and blood-based accelerated biological aging (with proportion mediation ranging from 8.22% to 79.03%).

CONCLUSION

The results support a biopsychosocial model of health and provide further evidence that, among Black Americans, early life social environmental experiences, especially parenting, financial stress, and racial discrimination, are associated with adult health profiles, and furthermore, psychosocial mechanisms mediate this association.

Direct and Indirect Effects of Socioeconomic Status and Discrimination on Subjective Cognitive Decline: A Longitudinal Study of African American Women

OBJECTIVES

The present study builds on recent findings suggesting that the stress of institutional and interpersonal racism may contribute to African Americans' elevated risk for dementia. We investigated the extent to which 2 consequences of racism-low socioeconomic status (SES) and discrimination-predict self-reported cognitive decline (SCD) 19 years later. Further, we examined potential mediating pathways that might link SES and discrimination to cognitive decline. Potential mediators included depression, accelerated biological aging, and onset of chronic illnesses.

METHODS

Hypotheses were tested using a sample of 293 African American women. SCD was assessed using the Everyday Cognition Scale. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the effects of SES and racial discrimination, both measured in 2002, on SCD reported in 2021. Turning to the mediators, midlife depression was assessed in 2002, accelerated aging in 2019, and chronic illness in 2019. Age and prodrome depression were included as covariates.

RESULTS

There were direct effects of SES and discrimination on SCD. In addition, these 2 stressors showed a significant indirect effect on SCD through depression. Finally, there was evidence for a more complex pathway where SES and discrimination accelerate biological aging, with accelerated aging, in turn leading to chronic illness, which then predicted SCD.

DISCUSSION

Results of the present study add to a growing literature indicating that living in a racialized society is a central factor in explaining the high risk for dementia among Black Americans. Future research should continue to emphasize the various ways that exposure to racism over the life course effects cognition.

Strengthening couple functioning promotes resilience to COVID-19-related stressors among Black Americans

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in substantial hardship for Black Americans, leading to increased stress and mental health difficulties. We used longitudinal data from the Protecting Strong African American Families (ProSAAF) intervention study to test the hypothesis that improved couple functioning following ProSAAF participation would serve as a constructed resilience resource during the pandemic, buffering the impact of elevated pandemic-related stressors on change in depressive symptoms. We found that COVID-19-related stress predicted change in depressive symptoms from prepandemic to during the pandemic, that ProSAAF predicted improved couple functioning, and that positive change in couple functioning buffered the impact of pandemic stressors on change in depressive symptoms. These effects resulted in a significant indirect buffering effect of ProSAAF on the association between COVID-19-related stress and change in depressive symptoms through its effects on change in couple functioning. The results suggest that relationship intervention may increase resilience to unanticipated community-wide stress and promote mental health. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Changes in Loneliness, BDNF, and Biological Aging Predict Trajectories in a Blood-Based Epigenetic Measure of Cortical Aging: A Study of Older Black Americans

A recent epigenetic measure of aging has developed based on human cortex tissue. This cortical clock (CC) dramatically outperformed extant blood-based epigenetic clocks in predicting brain age and neurological degeneration. Unfortunately, measures that require brain tissue are of limited utility to investigators striving to identify everyday risk factors for dementia. The present study investigated the utility of using the CpG sites included in the CC to formulate a peripheral blood-based cortical measure of brain age (CC-Bd). To establish the utility of CC-Bd, we used growth curves with individually varying time points and longitudinal data from a sample of 694 aging African Americans. We examined whether three risk factors that have been linked to cognitive decline—loneliness, depression, and BDNFm—predicted CC-Bd after controlling for several factors, including three new-generation epigenetic clocks. Our findings showed that two clocks—DunedinPACE and PoAm—predicted CC-BD, but that increases in loneliness and BDNFm continued to be robust predictors of accelerated CC-Bd even after taking these effects into account. This suggests that CC-Bd is assessing something more than the pan-tissue epigenetic clocks but that, at least in part, brain health is also associated with the general aging of the organism.

Childhood adversity and adult health: A dyadic analysis of Black American couples

OBJECTIVE

The association between childhood adversity and adulthood health is well established, but few studies have examined potential effects of childhood adversity on partner health in couples. This study examined the long-term health impact of childhood adversity on individuals as well as their significant others.

METHOD

The participants were 163 distinguishable dyads from the Family and Community Health Study. Health outcomes included both self-reported chronic illness and a messenger RNA index of accelerated aging. The actor-partner interdependence model with structural equation methods was used to test the hypothesis.

RESULTS

Replicating prior research, childhood adversity was associated with more chronic illness and an accelerated speed of aging. Further, participants' health in adulthood was affected by both own and partner experiences of childhood adversity. There were no gender differences.

CONCLUSION

Our findings replicate and extend prior research on the long-term impact of exposure to childhood adversity, suggesting that adverse childhood experiences are also harmful to romantic partners. Further studies are required to examine potential mechanisms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Do Loneliness and Per Capita Income Combine to Increase the Pace of Biological Aging for Black Adults across Late Middle Age?

In a sample of 685 late middle-aged Black adults (M age at 2019 = 57.17 years), we examined the effects of loneliness and per capita income on accelerated aging using a newly developed DNA-methylation based index: the DunedinPACE. First, using linear, mixed effects regression in a growth curve framework, we found that change in DunedinPACE was dependent on age, with a linear model best fitting the data (b = 0.004, p < 0.001), indicating that average pace of change increased among older participants. A quadratic effect was also tested, but was non-significant. Beyond the effect of age, both change in loneliness (b = 0.009, p < 0.05) and change in per capita income (b = -0.016, p < 0.001) were significantly associated with change in DunedinPACE across an 11-year period, accounting for significant between person variability observed in the unconditional model. Including non-self-report indices of smoking and alcohol use did not reduce the association of loneliness or per capita income with DunedinPACE. However, change in smoking was strongly associated with change in DunedinPACE such that those reducing their smoking aged less rapidly than those continuing to smoke. In addition, both loneliness and per capita income were associated with DunedinPACE after controlling for variation in cell-types.

Incarceration exposure and epigenetic aging in neighborhood context

OBJECTIVE

Research has implicated incarceration exposure as a social determinant of health, with recent work suggesting incarceration may trigger a stress response that accelerates physiological deterioration. The objective of the current study is to assess whether neighborhood stressors intensify the health consequences of incarceration exposure.

METHODS

We test whether two neighborhood context measures - socioeconomic disadvantage and perceived crime - moderate the association between incarceration exposure and a measure of accelerated epigenetic aging based on the GrimAge index. Our sample included 408 African American young adults from the Family and Community Health study.

RESULTS

Results from regression analyses with inverse probability of treatment weights suggest that incarceration exposure and neighborhood disadvantage are independently associated with accelerated biological aging. The results also show that the impact of incarceration exposure on accelerated aging is amplified for individuals in neighborhoods with higher levels of perceived crime.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings indicate that the neighborhood contexts where formerly incarcerated individuals return have a substantial impact on their pace of biological aging. Policies aimed at reducing ambient stressors after release may promote healthy aging among formerly incarcerated African American adults.

Neighborhood disadvantage is associated with biological aging: Intervention-induced enhancement of couple functioning confers resilience

The accelerated pace of biological aging predicts mortality and morbidity later in life. The current study examines whether a change in supportive couple functioning buffers accelerated aging associated with stressful community environments among Black Americans who live in rural, Southern, disadvantaged neighborhoods. We examined 348 Black American middle-aged adults assigned randomly to receive the Protecting Strong African American Families (ProSAAF) intervention or a control condition. The program was designed to enhance supportive couple functioning among Black Americans. We used DunedinPoAm to quantify the methylation pace of aging and employed the Area Deprivation Index at the census block group level to measure neighborhood disadvantage. Neighborhood disadvantage was associated with the accelerated pace of aging. Further, participation in ProSAAF enhanced supportive couple functioning, and improvement in couple functioning protected participants from the harmful effects of neighborhood disadvantage on the accelerated pace of aging. These findings supported mediated moderation and suggested that family-based prevention programs that enhance couple support may decrease the erosive effects of neighborhood disadvantage and improve prospects for healthy aging among rural, Southern, Black Americans living in difficult circumstances. This may provide a supplemental strategy for decreasing health disparities due to neighborhood disadvantage by enhancing family systems.

Digital methylation assessments of alcohol and cigarette consumption account for common variance in accelerated epigenetic ageing

Smoking and Heavy Alcohol Consumption (HAC) are established risk factors for myriad complex disorders of ageing. Yet many prior studies of Epigenetic Ageing (EA) have shown only modest effects of smoking and drinking on accelerated ageing. One potential reason for this conundrum might be the reliance of some prior EA studies on self-reported substance use, which may be unreliable in many samples. To test whether novel, non-self-reported indices would show a stronger association of smoking and HAC to EA, we used methylation sensitive digital PCR (MSdPCR) and data from 437 African American subjects from Wave 7 of the Family and Community Health Study Offspring Cohort to examine the effects of subjective and objective measures of smoking and HAC on 7 indices of EA. Because of limited overall correlations between the various EA indices, we examined patterns of association separately for each index. Consistent with expectations, MSdPCR assessments of smoking and HAC, but not self-reported alcohol consumption, were strongly correlated with accelerated EA. MSdPCR assessments of smoking and HAC accounted for 57% of GrimAge acceleration and the shared variance in GrimAge and DunedinPOAM accelerated EA. We conclude that MSdPCR assessments of smoking and HAC are valuable tools for understanding EA, represent directly targetable conditions for the prevention of premature ageing, and substantially improve upon self-reported assessment of smoking and HAC.

Relationship intervention indirectly buffers financial strain's effect on biological aging among Black adults

Black adults in the rural South experience elevated financial strain and other contextual stressors, increasing their risk for poor health. Supportive relationships, particularly positive romantic relationships, have been shown to offset these risks. The present study aims to provide experimental evidence of the buffering effect of supportive relationships by testing whether participation in a relationship enhancement program (ProSAAF) that improves couple functioning (Barton, Beach, Wells, et al., 2018) subsequently buffers the effect of cumulative financial strain on biological aging (weathering). Postintervention financial strain was assessed four times. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was extracted from peripheral whole blood collected 6 years after baseline (n = 348 individuals), and patterns of methylation were used to index accelerated pace of aging. Couple functioning was treated as a latent construct comprising four self-report indicators: effective communication, relationship confidence, relationship satisfaction, and perceived partner support. Results indicated that cumulative financial strain was associated with accelerated pace of aging with a medium to large effect size. This effect was moderated by change in couple functioning such that individuals with greater improvement in couple functioning showed less epigenetic aging in response to cumulative financial strain. Additionally, there was a significant indirect buffering effect of ProSAAF on the association between cumulative financial strain and accelerated pace of aging. This is the first study to demonstrate that a couple-focused preventive intervention can reduce the impact of financial strain on rate of aging by enhancing couple functioning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Intervention effects on self-control decrease speed of biological aging mediated by changes in substance use: A longitudinal study of African American youth

Biological aging is a common root for multiple diseases causing morbidity and mortality, and trajectories of aging may start early in life. This study was designed to examine whether a universal family-based substance use preventive intervention to enhance self-control and reduce substance use would also result in reductions in biological aging among Black youth from the rural South. The Adults in the Making (AIM) program is a randomized controlled trial with six 2-h sessions for Black youth. The 216 youths agreeing to provide blood at age 22 included 114 who had received the AIM intervention and 102 who assigned to the control group. We examined accelerated DNA methylation (DNAm)-based aging using a recently developed measure, "GrimAge," that has been shown to predict the risk of early mortality and that is known to be more strongly affected by substance use than other DNAm-based aging indices. Relative to those randomly assigned to the control group, those receiving the intervention demonstrated significantly enhanced self-control, slower increases in substance use, and reduced Grim aging at age 22. Using a bootstrapping method with 1000 replications, we found a significant indirect effect of AIM on reduced Grim aging through its effect on self-control and substance use. Sensitivity analyses examined effects using other indices of DNAm-based aging. These findings suggest that a family-based program designed to enhance rural Black youth's self-control can have beneficial effects on self-control, enhancing young adult health and health behavior, and ultimately decreased mortality risk.

Romantic Relationship Status, Quality, and Depressive Symptoms Among Middle-Aged and Older Black Women

OBJECTIVES

Past research has established a link between romantic relationships and depressive symptoms among adults, including those in later life. There is, however, still a lack of evidence regarding whether romantic relationship status or relationship quality is a better predictor of psychological well-being among middle-aged and older Black adult women.

METHODS

The present study draws on data from the Family and Community Health Study, a multisite, longitudinal survey of health and psychosocial experiences of Black families, to examine how relationship status and quality relate to depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older Black adult women (N = 571). A series of negative binomial regression models, with 95% confidence intervals and internal moderators, were used to assess the research questions.

RESULTS

Middle-aged and older Black women in married, cohabiting, and dating relationships who reported higher levels of relationship quality had a lower likelihood of depressive symptoms than those who reported lower levels of relationship quality or who did not report being in any romantic relationship when controlling for baseline depressive symptoms. The findings from our study indicate that relationship quality is a better predictor of depressive symptoms than relationship status.

DISCUSSION

Our findings extend the body of literature on the impact of romantic relationships on individual well-being and provide compelling evidence that such relationships, particularly those of high quality, are significantly associated with lower depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older Black women.

Neighborhood structural disadvantage and biological aging in a sample of Black middle age and young adults

OBJECTIVES

Research on the social determinants of health has suggested that neighborhood disadvantage may undermine healthy aging and is particularly relevant for understanding health disparities. Recently, this work has examined deoxyribonucleic acid methylation (DNAm)-based measures of biological aging to understand the risk factors for morbidity and mortality. However, it is unknown whether neighborhood disadvantage is related to different indices of DNAm-based aging among Black Americans and whether such neighborhood effects vary as a function of age or gender.

METHODS

Our analyses of a Black American sample included 448 young adults and 493 middle-aged adults. We measured neighborhood disadvantage using the Area Deprivation Index at the census block group level. DNAm-based accelerated aging indices were measured using established procedures. Regressions with clustered standard errors were used for the analysis.

RESULTS

Neighborhood disadvantage was independently associated with acceleration in PhenoAge, GrimAge, and DunedinPoAm, among young and middle-aged adults. Further, there was no evidence that gender conditioned the effects of neighborhood disadvantage on the aging indices.

CONCLUSIONS

Regardless of age groups or gender, accelerated biological aging among Black Americans is partly rooted in differences in neighborhood disadvantage. From a policy standpoint, our findings suggest that programs that decrease neighborhood disadvantage are likely to increase healthy aging, especially among Black Americans.

Unstable Childhood, Adult Adversity, and Smoking Accelerate Biological Aging Among Middle-Age African Americans: Similar Findings for GrimAge and PoAm

Objectives: The recent biological clocks GrimAge and PoAm are robust predictors of morbidity and mortality. Little research, however, has investigated the factors that influence their ticking speed. No study has used multivariate analyses to examine whether childhood adversity, adult hardship, lifestyle practices, or some combination of these factors best explains acceleration of these indices. Methods: Using a sample of 506 middle-age African Americans, the present study investigated the extent to which childhood instability, adult adversity, and lifestyle predict accelerated GrimAge and PoAm. Results: The two clocks were highly correlated and the pattern of findings was very similar for the two measures. Childhood instability, adult financial hardship, and smoking were significant predictors of both clocks. Discussion: The findings support a life course perspective where both the long arm of childhood as well as later life conditions influence speed of aging. Similar results across the two clocks enhance confidence in the findings.

Losing Years Doing Time: Incarceration Exposure and Accelerated Biological Aging among African American Adults

Research suggests that incarceration exposure increases the prevalence of morbidity and premature mortality. This work is only beginning to examine whether the stressors of the incarceration experience become biologically embedded in ways that affect physiological deterioration. Using data from a longitudinal sample of 410 African American adults in the Family and Community Health Study and an epigenetic index of aging, this study tests the extent to which incarceration accelerates epigenetic aging and whether experiences with violence moderate this association. Results from models that adjust for selection effects suggest that incarceration exposure predicted accelerated aging, leaving formerly incarcerated African American individuals biologically older than their calendar age. Direct experiences with violence also exacerbated the effects of incarceration. These findings suggest that incarceration possibly triggers a stress response that affects a biological signature of physiological deterioration.

The Impact of Harsh Parenting on the Development of Obesity in Adulthood: An Examination of Epigenetic/Gene Expression Mediators Among African American Youth

Objective: We examined the association of prospectively assessed harsh parenting during adolescence with body mass index (BMI) in young adulthood among African American youth. We also assessed the role of methylation of obesity-related genes and gene expression markers of obesity as mediators of this association, providing a pathway for the biological embedding of early harsh parenting and its long-term impact on young adult health.

Methods: Hypotheses were tested with a sample of 362 African American youth for whom harsh parenting was assessed at ages 10–15, BMI was assessed at age 10 and 29, and both DNA methylation (DNAm) and gene expression of obesity genes were assessed at age 29. Mediational analyses were conducted using bootstrap methods to generate confidence intervals.

Results: Controlling for genetic risk for obesity and health-related covariates, harsh parenting across childhood and adolescence was associated with change in BMI (Δ BMI) from ages 10–29. In addition, we found that the indirect effect of harsh parenting on Δ BMI was mediated through obesity-related DNAm and accounted for 45.3% of the total effect. Further, obesity-related DNAm mediated the effect of harsh parenting on gene expression of obesity-related genes (GEOG), and GEOG, in turn, mediated the impact of obesity-related DNAm on ΔBMI. This pathway accounted for 3.4% of the total effect. There were no gender differences in the magnitude of this indirect effect.

Conclusions: The results suggest that alterations in methylation and gene expression mediate the impact of harsh parenting on change in obesity from childhood to young adulthood, illustrating plausible biological pathways from harsh parenting to obesity and bolstering the hypothesis that harsh parenting in childhood and adolescence can become biologically embedded and contribute to obesity.

Methylation of FKBP5 is associated with accelerated DNA methylation ageing and cardiometabolic risk: replication in young-adult and middle-aged Black Americans

Methylation of FKBP5 is involved in the regulation of the stress response and is influenced by early stress exposure. Two CpG sites, cg20813374 and cg00130530, have been identified as potential reporters of early stress. We examined whether FKBP5 methylation was associated with accelerated DNA methylation ageing and indirectly predicted poorer cardiovascular health among both young adult and middle-aged Black Americans. Four hundred and forty-nine young adults, with a mean age of 28.67 and N = 469 middle-age parents and their current partners with a mean age of 57.21, provided self-reports, biometric assessments, and blood draws. Methylation values were obtained using the Illumina Epic Array. Cardiometabolic risk was calculated by summing the standardized log-transformed scores for the body mass index, mean arterial blood pressure, and HbA1c. We also used a more standard index of risk, the Framingham 10-year cardiometabolic risk index, as an alternative measure of cardiometabolic risk. To measure accelerated ageing, four widely used indices of accelerated, DNA methylation-based ageing were used controlling sex, age, other variation in FKBP5, and cell-type. Exposure to community danger was associated with demethylation of FKBP5. FKBP5 methylation was significantly associated with accelerated ageing for both young-adult and middle-aged samples, with significant indirect effects from FKBP5 methylation to cardiometabolic risk through accelerated ageing for both. Early exposure to danger may influence FKBP5 methylation. In turn, FKBP5 methylation may help explain intrinsic accelerated ageing and elevated cardiometabolic risk in adulthood for Black Americans.

Re(Setting) Epigenetic Clocks: An Important Avenue Whereby Social Conditions Become Biologically Embedded across the Life Course

Research on biological embedding of the social environment has been expedited by increased availability of biomarkers. Recently, this arsenal of measures has been expanded to include epigenetic clocks that indicate in years the extent to which an individual is older or younger than their chronological age. These measures of biological aging, especially GrimAge, are robust predictors of both illness and time to death. Importantly for sociologists, several studies have linked social conditions to these indices of aging. The present study extends this research using longitudinal data from a sample of 223 black women participating in the Family and Community Health Study. We find that changes in income and living arrangements over an 11-year period predict changes in speed of biological aging. These results provide further support for the idea that epigenetic aging is a mechanism whereby social conditions become biologically embedded. The utility of epigenetic clocks for sociological studies of health are discussed.

Childhood adversity is linked to adult health among African Americans via adolescent weight gain and effects are genetically moderated

Identifying the mechanisms linking early experiences, genetic risk factors, and their interaction with later health consequences is central to the development of preventive interventions and identifying potential boundary conditions for their efficacy. In the current investigation of 412 African American adolescents followed across a 20-year period, we examined change in body mass index (BMI) across adolescence as one possible mechanism linking childhood adversity and adult health. We found associations of childhood adversity with objective indicators of young adult health, including a cardiometabolic risk index, a methylomic aging index, and a count of chronic health conditions. Childhood adversities were associated with objective indicators indirectly through their association with gains in BMI across adolescence and early adulthood. We also found evidence of an association of genetic risk with weight gain across adolescence and young adult health, as well as genetic moderation of childhood adversity's effect on gains in BMI, resulting in moderated mediation. These patterns indicated that genetic risk moderated the indirect pathways from childhood adversity to young adult health outcomes and childhood adversity moderated the indirect pathways from genetic risk to young adult health outcomes through effects on weight gain during adolescence and early adulthood.

Inflammatory biomarker relationships with helper T cell GPR15 expression and cannabis and tobacco smoking

OBJECTIVE

Smoking is associated with numerous inflammatory and autoimmune conditions. The goal of this study was to examine whether increased expression of G-protein-coupled receptor 15 (GPR15) on helper T cells in smokers could predispose to these conditions through its relationship with inflammatory biomarkers.

METHODS

We used flow cytometric measurement of GPR15⁺CD3⁺CD4⁺ helper T cells and serum assays for C-reactive protein (CRP) and 17 cytokines drawn from peripheral blood samples from a cohort of n = 62 primarily African American young adults (aged 27-35 years). These variables were examined cross-sectionally in conjunction with serum biomarkers of tobacco (cotinine) and cannabis (tetrahydrocannabinol) use and lifestyle factors potentially impacting immune function in correlational analyses and linear regression models.

RESULTS

Tobacco and cannabis smoking were strongly associated with increased GPR15 expression on helper T cells (p < 0.001), which was in turn was strongly associated with the ratio of pro-inflammatory to anti-inflammatory cytokines (p < 0.001). Mediation analyses indicated increased GPR15 expression accounted for roughly half of the relationship between smoking variables and pro-inflammatory to anti-inflammatory cytokine balance. CRP was not associated with cannabis or tobacco use or GPR15+ expression, but was associated with body mass index (p < 0.001). These relationships persisted after controlling for lifestyle and medical factors impacting immune function.

CONCLUSIONS

Increased expression of GPR15 by helper T cells in smokers may mediate some of the relationship between smoking and a pro-inflammatory cytokine milieu. Better understanding of this relationship may help uncover how smoking increases the risk of inflammatory diseases.

Can We Uncouple Neighborhood Disadvantage and Delinquent Behaviors? An Experimental Test of Family Resilience Guided by the Social Disorganization Theory of Delinquent Behaviors

Although the influence of neighborhood disadvantage on youth development of delinquent behavior is well established, findings from this research have yet to inform the development of family-centered prevention programming to protect youth from these erosive effects. The current paper examines the role of family integration in buffering the impact of social disadvantage in a sample of N = 298 families randomly assigned either to a control condition or to a family-based prevention program previously shown to enhance marriage and parenting. We first confirmed that neighborhood concentrated disadvantage predicted change in delinquent behaviors across the course of the study. Additionally, replicating prior work, parents participating in the Protecting Strong African American Families (ProSAAF) program, relative to those randomly assigned to the control group, significantly improved their use of effective communication strategies with each other and reduced ineffective conflict in front of youth. This resulted in a significant indirect effect of ProSAAF on change in youth delinquent behaviors. Furthermore, using mediated moderation analysis, the study tested the buffering effect of greater family integration, showing that experimentally produced change in interparental communication skills and the resulting reduction in youth exposure to parental conflict buffered the effect of neighborhood disadvantage on change in youth delinquent behaviors, supporting a mediated moderation model in which family environments buffer neighborhood effects.

The effects of social adversity, discrimination, and health risk behaviors on the accelerated aging of African Americans: Further support for the weathering hypothesis

BACKGROUND

The weathering hypothesis views the elevated rates of illness, disability, and mortality seen among Black Americans as a physiological response to the structural barriers, material hardships, and identity threats that comprise the Black experience. While granting that lifestyle may have some significance, the fundamental explanation for heath inequalities is seen as race-related stressors that accelerate biological aging.

OBJECTIVE

The present study tests the weathering hypothesis by examining the impact on accelerated aging of four types of adversity frequently experienced by Black Americans. Further, we investigate whether health risk behaviors mediate the effect of these conditions.

METHOD

Our analyses utilize data from 494 middle-age, African American men and women participating in the Family and Community Healthy Study. The newly developed GrimAge index of accelerated aging is used as an indicator of weathering. Education, income, neighborhood disadvantage, and discrimination serve as the independent variables. Three health risk behaviors - diet, exercise, and alcohol consumption - are included as potential mediators of the four types of adversity. Marital status and gender are entered as controls.

RESULTS

Multivariate analyses indicated that the four types of adversity predicted acceleration whereas marriage predicted deceleration in speed of aging. Males showed greater accelerated aging than females, but there was no evidence that gender conditioned the effect of adversity. The health risk behaviors were unrelated to accelerated aging and did not mediate the effect of the stressors.

CONCLUSION

Modern medicine's emphasis on life style as the primary explanation for race-based health disparities ignores the way race-related adversity rooted in structural and cultural conditions serves to accelerate biological decline, thereby increasing risk of early onset of illness and death. Importantly, these social conditions can only be addressed through social policies and programs that target institutional racism and promote economic equity.

Array-Based Epigenetic Aging Indices May Be Racially Biased

Epigenetic aging (EA) indices are frequently used as predictors of mortality and other important health outcomes. However, each of the commonly used array-based indices has significant heritable components which could tag ethnicity and potentially confound comparisons across racial and ethnic groups. To determine if this was possible, we examined the relationship of DNA methylation in cord blood from 203 newborns (112 African American (AA) and 91 White) at the 513 probes from the Levine PhenoAge Epigenetic Aging index to ethnicity. Then, we examined all sites significantly associated with race in the newborn sample to determine if they were also associated with an index of ethnic genetic heritage in a cohort of 505 AA adults. After Bonferroni correction, methylation at 50 CpG sites was significantly associated with ethnicity in the newborn cohort. The five most significant sites predicted ancestry with a receiver operator characteristic area under the curve of 0.97. Examination of the top 50 sites in the AA adult cohort showed that methylation status at 11 of those sites was also associated with percentage European ancestry. We conclude that the Levine PhenoAge Index is influenced by cryptic ethnic-specific genetic influences. This influence may extend to similarly constructed EA indices and bias cross-race comparisons.

Social and psychological consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak: The experiences of Taiwan and Hong Kong

This article discusses the value of studying past social and psychological responses to pandemics and natural disasters in understanding reactions to coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19). By examining severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) experiences in both Taiwan and Hong Kong, we indicate that psychological trauma might be a pathway whereby the COVID-19 outbreak affects long-term health and well-being and that psychological and collective trauma caused by the COVID-19 may relate to future preparedness and risk awareness. We conclude with a consideration of social-psychological processes for future research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The Effect of Tobacco Smoking Differs across Indices of DNA Methylation-Based Aging in an African American Sample: DNA Methylation-Based Indices of Smoking Capture These Effects

Smoking is one of the leading preventable causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide, prompting interest in its association with DNA methylation-based measures of biological aging. Considerable progress has been made in developing DNA methylation-based measures that correspond to self-reported smoking status. In addition, assessment of DNA methylation-based aging has been expanded to better capture individual differences in risk for morbidity and mortality. Untested to date, however, is whether smoking is similarly related to older and newer indices of DNA methylation-based aging, and whether DNA methylation-based indices of smoking can be used in lieu of self-reported smoking to examine effects on DNA methylation-based aging measures. In the current investigation we examine mediation of the impact of self-reported cigarette consumption on accelerated, intrinsic DNA methylation-based aging using indices designed to predict chronological aging, phenotypic aging, and mortality risk, as well as a newly developed DNA methylation-based measure of telomere length. Using a sample of 500 African American middle aged smokers and non-smokers, we found that a) self-reported cigarette consumption was associated with accelerated intrinsic DNA methylation-based aging on some but not all DNA methylation-based aging indices, b) for those aging outcomes associated with self-reported cigarette consumption, DNA methylation-based indicators of smoking typically accounted for greater variance than did self-reported cigarette consumption, and c) self-reported cigarette consumption effects on DNA methylation-based aging indices typically were fully mediated by DNA methylation-based indicators of smoking (e.g., PACKYRS from GrimAge; or cg05575921 CpG site). Results suggest that when DNA methylation-based indices of smoking are substituted for self-reported assessments of smoking, they will typically fully reflect the varied impact of cigarette smoking on intrinsic, accelerated DNA methylation-based aging.

Socially Demoralizing Environments and the Development of the Street Code from Childhood to Emerging Adulthood

OBJECTIVES

This study examines hypotheses regarding patterns of developmental change in street code commitment from childhood through emerging adulthood. It tests whether street code commitment demonstrates developmental stability or if it fluctuates in response to evolving socially demoralizing conditions.

METHODS

Latent growth curve and parallel process models are applied to longitudinal data from an African American sample. Confirmatory factor analysis tests the degree to which neighborhood violence, peer processes, and family hostilities combine to form a latent construct of socially demoralizing environments. Analysis also tests measurement invariance across the study assessment periods.

RESULTS

Street code commitment demonstrates a non-linear growth pattern across time. Commitment increases in childhood, peaks in late adolescence, and declines in emerging adulthood. Exposure to demoralizing social environments demonstrates a similar pattern of change characterized by a peak in adolescence followed by a gradual decline. Harsh childhood social environments affect the initial levels but not the growth of the street code. Street code commitment fluctuates in response to contemporaneous environmental conditions.

CONCLUSION

The street code is malleable from childhood through emerging adulthood. Commitment to the street code is not a stable product of socialization or early childhood social environmental exposures. The degree to which individuals embrace the code is largely a function of their current social environment.

Childhood Adversities as Determinants of Cardiovascular Disease Risk and Perceived Illness Burden in Adulthood: Comparing Retrospective and Prospective Self-Report Measures in a Longitudinal Sample of African Americans

A large body of evidence suggests that exposure to childhood adversities increases risk for poor quality physical health in adulthood. Much of this evidence is based on retrospective measures which are believed to be contaminated by the limitations and biases of autobiographical memory. Using longitudinal data on 454 African Americans (61 percent female) this study examines the corroboration between prospective and retrospective measures of childhood adversities gathered approximately two decades apart, and the relative ability of the measures to predict self-reported illnesses and a biomarker of 30-year cardiovascular disease risk. Comparisons indicated that the retrospective and prospective measures demonstrated weak convergence and did not provide completely equivalent information about self-reported adverse childhood experiences. A series of regression models indicated that the two measures of adversities exhibited similar associations with the cardiovascular disease biomarker but divergent associations with self-reported illnesses. Furthermore, both the prospective and retrospective measures simultaneously predicted cardiovascular disease risk in adulthood. That the prospective measure did not significantly predict perceived illnesses after adjusting for the retrospective measure is evidence that childhood adversities predict self-reported health burden insofar as respondents remember those adversities as adults. The findings provide evidence that retrospective self-report measures of childhood adversities do not closely converge with prospective measures, and that retrospective measures may not provide valid estimates of the association between childhood adversities and perceived illnesses in adulthood.

Childhood adversity and cardiovascular disease risk: An appraisal of recall methods with a focus on stress-buffering processes in childhood and adulthood

INTRODUCTION

Associations between childhood/adolescent adversity and poor adult physical health have been reported in past work. Much of this work has relied on either retrospective or prospective measures of childhood experiences. However, the effect of different assessment methods on potential stress buffering processes remains largely unknown.

OBJECTIVE

We first examined the extent to which long-term cardiovascular disease risk (CVD) was predicted by reports obtained from 10-year old youth regarding adversity experienced in the prior year and those obtained from the same individuals as adults (age 29) regarding their experience of childhood adversity from ages 0-10, focusing in each case on similar types of adversity. To test stress buffering perspectives, we examined the effects of parental emotional support on the association between each measure of childhood adversities and cardiovascular health.

METHODS

We used data from a longitudinal sample of 454 African Americans enrolled in the Family and Community Health Study. The outcome variable was a 30-year CVD risk score computed from the Framingham algorithm. The hypotheses were tested with beta regression models.

RESULTS

The findings revealed a link between childhood adversity and adult CVD risk at age 29, for both measures of adversity. Consistent with the stress-buffering hypothesis, prospectively assessed parental emotional support in adolescence, but not adulthood, buffered effects on cardiovascular risk for each type of assessment of childhood adversity.

CONCLUSIONS

Prospective and retrospective measures correlated in a manner similar to prior reports (i.e. significantly, but poorly). Further, in line with stress-buffering hypothesis, parental emotional support received at age 10 yielded different buffering effects than parental emotional support received at age 29. The study's findings suggest that theoretically consistent patterns of stress-buffering are detectable using either type of assessment of childhood adversity and provide useful information in the prediction of adult CVD risk.

Family-centered alcohol use prevention for African American adolescents: A randomized clinical trial

OBJECTIVE

The efficacy of the Strong African American Families (SAAF) alcohol use prevention program was tested. SAAF is a 7-session family skills training program offered in community settings. To overcome limitations of a past trial that used intent-to-treat (ITT) analyses, a Complier Average Causal Effect (CACE) analysis was used to estimate intervention effects and to determine the precise dosage of the intervention needed to achieve alcohol deterrence.

METHOD

A sample of 472 African American youth and their caregivers were recruited randomly from public schools in 7 rural Georgia counties. Families were assigned randomly to receive SAAF or a no-treatment control. Youth provided data on their alcohol use during the past 3 months at 4 home visits, the final occurring 34 months after baseline and 28 months after the intervention.

RESULTS

Efficacy was tested with Poisson latent growth curve models. SAAF deterred growth in alcohol use in models using both ITT and CACE estimation. CACE analyses revealed that, among participants who received a full dose of the intervention (7 sessions), a large treatment effect on slowed growth in alcohol use emerged (β = -.83, p < .001). Dose-response analyses in CACE models revealed a medium-sized effect (d [95% CI] = 1.51 [1.25, 1.75]) when participants attended at least 5 of the 7 sessions offered.

CONCLUSIONS

Replication of SAAF in a second randomized prevention trial supports the robustness of program effects. It is critical, however, that participant engagement protocols be designed to encourage participation in as at least 5 of the 7 sessions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Neighborhood Disadvantage and Biological Aging: Using Marginal Structural Models to Assess the Link Between Neighborhood Census Variables and Epigenetic Aging

OBJECTIVES

Past research has reported an association between neighborhood disadvantage and healthy aging, but most of these studies utilize self-report measures of health or physical functioning and do not properly account for neighborhood selection effects, creating concerns regarding inflated associations. To overcome these limitations and provide a more stringent estimate of effects, the current study investigated the effect of neighborhood disadvantage on aging using newly developed epigenetic methods to assess rate of biological aging and marginal structural modeling (MSM) to account for potential confounds due to neighborhood selection.

METHODS

We tested the hypothesis that neighborhood disadvantage accelerates aging using U.S. census data and five waves of interview data from a sample of 100 middle-aged African American women. Using a recently developed epigenetic index of aging, biological age was measured using weighted methylation values at 71 CpG sites. We calculated a measure of accelerated methylomic aging (in years) based upon the residual scores resulting from a regression of methylomic age on chronological age.

RESULTS

Controlling for a variety of individual difference factors that could be confounded with neighborhood effects, including various health behaviors, neighborhood disadvantage was associated with accelerated biological aging. Using MSM to account for selection effects, a standard deviation increase in neighborhood disadvantage accelerated aging an average of 9 months.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings converge with prior work to provide strong evidence that neighborhood context is a significant determinant of healthy aging.

Testing Life Course Models Whereby Juvenile and Adult Adversity Combine to Influence Speed of Biological Aging

The present study extends prior research on the links between social adversity and aging by employing more comprehensive measures of adversity and a new gene expression index of aging. Hierarchical regression and 20 years of data from a sample of 381 black Americans were used to test models regarding the impact of social adversity on speed of aging. Consistent with the early life sensitivity model, early adversity continued to predict accelerated aging after controlling for adult adversity. Contrary to the pathway model, adult adversity was not related to aging following controls for early adversity. The cumulative stress model received partial support as high adversity during adulthood amplified the effect of early adversity on aging. Finally, consonant with the social change model, low adversity during adulthood buffered the effect of early adversity on aging. These findings held after controlling for health behaviors such as smoking, diet, and exercise.

Inflammation mediates the effect of discrimination, religiosity, and friendship network on expression of the Tp53 cancer suppressor gene

Objective

Chronic inflammation and expression of the TP53 gene are two biomarkers that have been identified as particularly important in the etiology and progression of cancer. While much is known about the determinants of inflammation, there is currently little information regarding the causes of variation in the functioning of TP53, even though it has been recognized for 40 years as the most potent of the cancer suppressor genes. The current paper explores the interrelationship between these two biomarkers and investigates the extent to which they are influenced by the social environment.

Methods

Using structural equation modeling (SEM) and longitudinal observational data from a sample of several hundred African Americans, we tested the hypothesis that adversity – operationalized as racial discrimination- and coping resources – operationalized as religiosity and black friends - influence expression of TP53, for better or worse, through their impact on inflammation.

Results

Correlational analysis showed inflammation and TP53 to be inversely related. Further, discrimination was positively related to inflammation and negatively related to TP53 expression, whereas religiosity and black friends were both negatively related to inflammation and positively related to TP53 expression. Finally, SEM indicated that the effect of the social environmental variables on TP53 expression was indirect through level of inflammation.

Conclusions

In addition to its established contribution to cancer through DNA damage and cell proliferation, inflammation likely increases cancer risk indirectly by inhibiting expression of the TP53 cancer suppressor gene. Hence environmental and stress management interventions may do more than reduce inflammation's cell damaging effects; they may also lessen the chances of cancer by increasing expression of TP53.

•

Discrimination, religiosity, and black friends showed significant associations with inflammation and TP53.

•

The effect of discrimination, religiosity, and black friends on TP53 was indirect through level of inflammation.

•

Inflammation likely increases cancer risk indirectly by suppressing the TP53 cancer suppressor gene.

•

Environmental and stress management interventions may lessen the chances of cancer by increasing expression of TP53.

Youth Adversities Amplify the Association between Adult Stressors and Chronic Inflammation in a Domain Specific Manner: Nuancing the Early Life Sensitivity Model

There is strong evidence that chronic, systemic inflammation hastens onset of the diseases of old age that ultimately lead to death. Importantly, several studies suggest that childhood adversity predicts chronic inflammation. Unfortunately, this research has been plagued by retrospective reports of childhood adversity, an absence of controls for adult stressors, and a failure to investigate various competing models of the link between childhood adversity and chronic inflammation. The present study was designed to address these limitations. Using 18 years of data collected from 413 African Americans (58% female) included in the Family and Community Health Study, hierarchical regression analyses provided support for a nuanced early life sensitivity explanation for the link between early adversity and adult chronic inflammation. Controlling for health risk behaviors and adult SES, late childhood (ages 10-12) adversity amplified the association between adult adversity (age 29) and chronic inflammation. This interaction operated in a domain-specific fashion. Harsh parenting amplified the relation between intimate partner hostility and inflammation, whereas early discrimination amplified the relation between adult discrimination and inflammation. These findings suggest that individuals may be primed to respond physiologically to adverse adult circumstances that resemble those experienced earlier in life.

Discrimination, segregation, and chronic inflammation: Testing the weathering explanation for the poor health of Black Americans

Several studies have reported a relation between race-related stressors and the poor health of Black Americans. Such findings raise questions regarding the mediating biological mechanisms that might account for this link. The present study investigated elevated systemic inflammation, a factor shown to be a strong predictor of chronic illness and mortality in all ethnic populations, as a possible factor. Using 7 waves of data from the Family and Community Health Study, collected over a 20-year period from over 400 Black Americans, we investigated the extent to which exposure to discrimination and segregation at various points in the life course predicted adult inflammation at age 28. Our analyses examined whether cumulative stress, stress generation, or predictive adaptive response (PAR) models best accounted for any associations that existed between these race-related stressors and adult inflammation. At every wave of data collection, assessments of discrimination and segregation were related to adult inflammation. However, multivariate analyses using structure equation modeling indicated that the PAR model best explained the effect of these race-related stressors on inflammation. Exposure to discrimination and segregation during the juvenile years predicted adult inflammation and amplified the inflammatory effect of adult exposure to these race-related stressors. These effects were considerably more robust than that of traditional health risk factors such as diet, exercise, smoking, and low SES. Implications of these findings are discussed, including the limitations of the widely accepted risk factor approach to increasing the health of Black Americans. (PsycINFO Database Record

Methylation of MTHFR Moderates the Effect of Smoking on Genomewide Methylation Among Middle Age African Americans

Differential methylation at MTHFR (mMTHFR) has been examined previously as a moderator of changes in methylation among nascent smokers, but the effects of mMTHFR on genomewide patterns of methylation among established smokers in middle age are unknown. In the current investigation we examined a sample of 180 African American middle-aged smokers and non-smokers to test for patterns indicative of three different potential mechanisms of impact on epigenetic remodeling in response to long-term smoking. We found that mMTHFR moderated the association between smoking and changes in methylation for more than 25% of the 909 loci previously identified as being associated with smoking at a genomewide level of significance in middle-aged African Americans. Observed patterns of effect indicated amplification of both hyper and hypo methylating responses to smoking among those with lower mMTHFR. Moderating effects were robust to controls for sex, age, diet, and cell-type variation. Implications for potential mechanisms conferring effects are discussed. Of particular potential practical importance was a strong effect of mMTHFR on hypomethylation at GPR15 in response to smoking, indicative of the differential impact of MTHFR activity on changes in a specific cell population linked to inflammatory disease in smokers.

Biological embedding of neighborhood disadvantage and collective efficacy: Influences on chronic illness via accelerated cardiometabolic age

The present study extends prior research on the link between neighborhood disadvantage and chronic illness by testing an integrated model in which neighborhood characteristics exert effects on health conditions through accelerated cardiometabolic aging. Hypotheses were tested using a sample of 408 African Americans from the Family and Community Health Study. Using four waves of data spanning young adulthood (ages 18-29), we first found durable effects of neighborhood disadvantage on accelerated cardiometabolic aging and chronic illness. Then, we used marginal structural modeling to adjust for potential neighborhood selection effects. As expected, accelerated cardiometabolic aging was the biopsychosocial mechanism that mediated much of the association between neighborhood disadvantage and chronic illness. This finding provides additional support for the view that neighborhood disadvantage can influence morbidity and mortality by creating social contexts that becomes biologically embedded. Perceived neighborhood collective efficacy served to buffer the relationship between neighborhood disadvantage and biological aging, identifying neighborhood-level resilience factor. Overall, our results indicate that neighborhood context serves as a fundamental cause of weathering and accelerated biological aging. Residing in a disadvantaged neighborhood increases biological wear and tear that ultimately leads to onset of chronic illness, but access to perceived collective efficacy buffers the impact of these neighborhood effects. From an intervention standpoint, identifying such an integrated model may help inform future health-promoting interventions.

Polymer Surface Textured with Nanowire Bundles to Repel High-Speed Water Drops

Water drops impacting windshields of high-speed trains and aircraft as well as blades in steam turbine power generators obliquely and at high speeds are difficult to repel. Impacting drops penetrate the void regions of nanotextured and microtextured superhydrophobic coatings, with this pinning resulting in the loss of drop mobility. In order to repel high-speed water drops, we nanotextured polymer surfaces with nanowire bundles separated from their neighbors by microscale void regions, with the nanowires in a bundle separated from their neighbors by nanoscale void regions. Water drops with speeds below a critical speed rebound completely. Water drops with speeds exceeding a critical speed rebound partially, but residual droplets that begin to be pinned undergo a spontaneous dewetting process and slide off. The natural oscillations of residual droplets drive this dewetting process in the interbundle void regions, resulting in a transition from the sticky Wenzel state to the slippery Cassie state without external stimuli.

Childhood trauma, pubertal timing, and cardiovascular risk in adulthood

OBJECTIVE

An association between childhood trauma and adult health outcomes has been widely reported, but little is known about the developmental pathways through which childhood trauma influences adult cardiovascular disease (CVD).

METHOD

Hypotheses were tested with a sample of 405 African Americans from the Family and Community Health Study (FACHS). Path modeling was used to test our theoretical model.

RESULTS

Replicating prior research, exposure to childhood trauma was associated positively with increases in symptoms of CVD risk across young adulthood even after controlling for a variety of health-related and health behavior covariates. Further, the association of childhood trauma with CVD risk was mediated by early pubertal maturation. There were no gender differences in the magnitude of this effect.

CONCLUSION

Our findings support an evolutionary-development perspective (Belsky & Shalev, 2016) suggesting that early adverse life experiences lead to early biologically embedded changes reflected in early physical maturation and that these early changes predict later negative adult health outcomes. The results imply that early pubertal maturation is a precursor to vulnerability to long term health problems. From an intervention standpoint, identifying such developmental pathways may help inform future health-promoting interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record

An index of the ratio of inflammatory to antiviral cell types mediates the effects of social adversity and age on chronic illness

BACKGROUND

It is assumed that both social stress and chronological age increase the risk of chronic illness, in part, through their effect on systemic inflammation. Unfortunately, observational studies usually employ single-marker measures of inflammation (e.g., Interleukin-6, C-reactive protein) that preclude strong tests for mediational effects.

OBJECTIVE

The present study investigated the extent to which the effects of socioeconomic disadvantage and age on onset of chronic illness is mediated by dominance of the innate (inflammatory) over the acquired (antiviral) components of the immune system.

METHODS

We assessed inflammation using the ratio of inflammatory to antiviral cell types (ITACT Ratio). This approach provided a stronger test of evolutionary arguments regarding the effect of social stress on chronic inflammation than is the case with cytokine measures, and afforded an opportunity to replicate findings obtained utilizing mRNA. We used structural equation modeling and longitudinal data from a sample of 100 middle-age African American women to perform our analyses.

RESULTS

Dominance of inflammatory over antiviral cell activity was associated with each of the eight illnesses included in our chronic illness measure. Both socioeconomic disadvantage and age were also associated with inflammatory dominance. Pursuant to the central focus of the study, the effects of socioeconomic adversity and age on increased illness were mediated by our measure of inflammatory dominance. The indirect effect of these variables through inflammatory cell profile was significant, with neither socioeconomic disadvantage nor age showing a significant association with illness once the impact of inflammatory cell profile was taken into account.

CONCLUSIONS

First, the analysis provides preliminary validation of a new measure of inflammation that is calculated based on the ratio of inflammatory to antiviral white blood cells. Second, our results support the hypothesis that socioeconomic disadvantage and chronological age increase risk for chronic illness in part through their effect on inflammatory processes.

A pilot investigation of the impact of smoking cessation on biological age

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Smoking is known to increase biological age. However, whether this process is reversible through smoking cessation is not known. In this pilot study, we attempt to determine whether smoking cessation reduces biological age.

METHODS

We conducted regression analyses of methylation data from 22 subjects, as they entered and exited inpatient substance use treatment, to determine change in biological age, as indicated by the deviation of their methylomic age from chronological age across two time points.

RESULTS

We found that, as compared to those subjects who did not stop smoking, subjects who significantly decreased their smoking consumption over a 1 month time period exhibited a marked reduction in methylomic age.

CONCLUSION

The rapid and substantial reversal of accelerated aging associated with successful smoking cessation suggests that it can reverse well-known smoking effects on methylomic aging. This preliminary finding can be readily examined in other, larger data sets, and if replicated, this observation may provide smokers with yet another good reason to quit smoking.

SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE

Successful smoking cessation makes patients appear biologically younger than they were at baseline, and to do so quite rapidly. In today's youth driven society, our observations may serve as a powerful impetus for some to quit smoking. (Am J Addict 2017;26:129-135).

Parenting, Socioeconomic Status Risk, and Later Young Adult Health: Exploration of Opposing Indirect Effects via DNA Methylation

A sample of 398 African American youth, residing in rural counties with high poverty and unemployment, were followed from ages 11 to 19. Protective parenting was associated with better health, whereas elevated socioeconomic status (SES) risk was associated with poorer health at age 19. Genome-wide epigenetic variation assessed in young adulthood (age 19), was associated with both SES risk and protective parenting. Three categories of genes were identified whose methylation was associated with parenting, SES risk, and young adult health. Methylation was a significant mediator of the impact of parenting and SES risk on young adult health. Variation in mononuclear white blood cell types was also examined and controlled, showing that it did not account for observed effects of parenting and SES risk on health.

Alcohol and tobacco consumption alter hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis DNA methylation

Alcohol and cigarette consumption have profound effects on genome wide DNA methylation and are common, often cryptic, comorbid features of many psychiatric disorders. This cryptic consumption is a possible impediment to understanding the biology of certain psychiatric disorders because if the effects of substance use are not taken into account, their presence may confound efforts to identify effects of other behavioral disorders. Since the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis is known to be dysregulated in these disorders, we examined the potential for confounding effects of alcohol and cigarette consumption by examining their effects on peripheral DNA methylation at two key HPA axis genes, NR3C1 and FKBP5. We found that the influence of alcohol and smoke exposure is more prominent at the FKBP5 gene than the NR3C1 gene. Furthermore, in both genes, loci that were consistently significantly associated with smoking and alcohol consumption demethylated with increasing exposure. We conclude that epigenetic studies of complex disorders involving the HPA axis need to carefully control for the effects of substance use in order to minimize the possibility of type I and type II errors.

Stress, relationship satisfaction, and health among African American women: Genetic moderation of effects

We examined whether romantic relationship satisfaction would serve as a link between early and later stressors which in turn would influence the thyroid function index (TFI), an indicator of physiological stress response. Using the framework of genetic susceptibility theory combined with hypotheses derived from the vulnerability-stress-adaptation and stress-generation models, we tested whether the hypothesized mediational model would be conditioned by 5-HTTLPR genotype, with greater effects and stronger evidence of mediation among carriers of the "s" allele. In a sample of African American women in romantic relationships (n = 270), we found that 5-HTTLPR moderated each stage of the hypothesized mediational model in a "for better or for worse" manner. That is genetic polymorphisms function to exacerbate not only the detrimental impact of negative environments (i.e., "for worse effects") but also the beneficial impact of positive environments (i.e., "for better effects"). The effect of early stress on relationship satisfaction was greater among carriers of the "short" allele than among those who did not carry the short allele, and was significantly different in both the "for better" and "for worse" direction. Likewise, the effect of relationship satisfaction on later stressors was moderated in a "for better "or "for worse" manner. Finally, impact on physiological stress, indexed using TFI level, indicated that the impact of later stressors on TFI level was greater in the presence of the short allele, and also followed a "for better" or "for worse" pattern. As expected, the proposed mediational model provided a better fit for "s" allele carriers.

Implementing Family-Centered Prevention in Rural African American Communities: a Randomized Effectiveness Trial of the Strong African American Families Program

Efforts to disseminate evidence-based prevention programs are hampered by a lack of real-world effectiveness trials undertaken with community providers. The Strong African American Families (SAAF) program is an empirically validated intervention designed to prevent problem behavior among rural African American youth. To evaluate the effectiveness of SAAF and its implementation protocols when delivered by a community provider, we conducted a randomized, wait-list-controlled trial with outcome measurements assessed longitudinally at baseline and 6 months after baseline. A total of 465 African American youth and their parents were recruited randomly from public school lists of fifth- and sixth-grade students in eight rural counties in south Georgia. Youth and parents assessed targeted outcomes in their homes. The main outcome, problem behavior vulnerability, was operationalized as a latent construct comprising three indicators: tolerance for deviance, intentions to engage in risky behavior, and affiliations with risk-taking peers. SAAF was implemented with uniformly high levels of adherence (85.5%; SD = 10.8) and attendance (M = 4.1, SD = 2.9, range = 0-7). Intent-to-treat and complier average causal effect analyses revealed significant program effects on intervention-targeted parenting practices, youth self-regulatory processes, and problem behavior vulnerability. SAAF influenced problem behavior vulnerability indirectly via effects on targeted parenting and youth processes. This study supported the effectiveness of SAAF in a community setting when a systematic implementation model supports participant engagement and intervention adherence.

Methylomic Aging as a Window onto the Influence of Lifestyle: Tobacco and Alcohol Use Alter the Rate of Biological Aging

OBJECTIVES

To examine the effect of the relationship between alcohol and cigarette consumption on biological aging using deoxyribonucleic acid methylation-based indices.

DESIGN

Hierarchical linear regression modeling followed by fitting of higher-order effects.

SETTING

Longitudinal studies of aging and the effect of psychosocial stress.

PARTICIPANTS

Participants in two ethnically informative cohorts (n = 656 white, n = 180 black).

MEASUREMENTS

Deviation of biological age from chronological age as a result of smoking and alcohol consumption.

RESULTS

Greater cigarette consumption was associated with accelerated biological aging, with strong effects evident at even low levels of exposure. In contrast, alcohol consumption was associated with a mixed effect on biological aging and pronounced nonlinear effects. At low and heavy levels of alcohol consumption, there was accelerated biological aging, whereas at intermediate levels of consumption there was a relative decelerating effect. The decelerating effects of alcohol were particularly notable at loci for which methylation increased with age.

CONCLUSION

These data support prior epidemiological studies indicating that moderate alcohol use is associated with healthy aging, but we urge caution in interpreting these results. Conversely, smoking has strong negative effects at all levels of consumption. These results also support the use of methylomic indices as a tool for assessing the impact of lifestyle on aging.

Neighborhood crime and depressive symptoms among African American women: Genetic moderation and epigenetic mediation of effects

INTRODUCTION

Social scientists have long recognized the important role that neighborhood crime can play in stress-related disease, but very little is known about potential biosocial mechanisms that may link the experience of living in high-crime neighborhoods with depression.

OBJECTIVE

The current study introduces an integrated model that combines neighborhood, genetic, and epigenetic factors.

METHODS

Hypotheses were tested with a sample of 99 African American women from the Family and Community Health Study (FACHS).

RESULTS

Allele variants of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTT) interact with neighborhood crime to predict depressive symptoms in a manner consonant with the differential susceptibility perspective. Furthermore, this association is mediated by DNA methylation of the promoter region of the serotonin transporter gene.

CONCLUSION

The findings provide support for an integrated model in which changes in DNA methylation, resulting from neighborhood crime, can result in an increase or decrease in gene activity which, in turn, influences depressive symptoms.

INCORPORATING ROUTINE ACTIVITIES, ACTIVITY SPACES, AND SITUATIONAL DEFINITIONS INTO THE SOCIAL SCHEMATIC THEORY OF CRIME

Simons and Burt's (2011) social schematic theory (SST) of crime posits that adverse social factors are associated with offending because they promote a set of social schemas (i.e., a criminogenic knowledge structure) that elevates the probability of situational definitions favorable to crime. This study extends the SST model by incorporating the role of contexts for action. Furthermore, the study advances tests of the SST by incorporating a measure of criminogenic situational definitions to assess whether such definitions mediate the effects of schemas and contexts on crime. Structural equation models using 10 years of panel data from 582 African American youth provided strong support for the expanded theory. The results suggest that childhood and adolescent social adversity fosters a criminogenic knowledge structure as well as selection into criminogenic activity spaces and risky activities, all of which increase the likelihood of offending largely through situational definitions. Additionally, evidence shows that the criminogenic knowledge structure interacts with settings to amplify the likelihood of situational definitions favorable to crime.