Life course socioeconomic disadvantage and persistent infection burden: Links to cellular immunosenescence in U.S. young adults.

Background: Socioeconomic status (SES) disadvantage shapes exposure to persistent infections and immune aging, but its life-course effects remain understudied. Early adulthood is a crucial period, as immune aging may begin before clinical signs appear.

Methods: Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) were used to assess SES disadvantage across adolescence (Wave I) and young adulthood (Wave IV).

Childhood Social and Economic Disadvantage and the Risk of Uterine Fibroids among Black Women.

The association of childhood social and economic disadvantage ("disadvantage") and uterine fibroid risk is understudied. We examined the association between disadvantage and fibroid incidence using standardized ultrasound exams at repeated visits, among 1,230 participants 23-35 years of age in the Study of Environment, Lifestyle and Fibroids. Six disadvantage variables collected at baseline (i.

Differential methylation patterns in cord blood associated with prenatal exposure to neighborhood crime: an epigenome-wide association study and regional analysis.

Exposure to prenatal social stressors during pregnancy is associated with adverse birth outcomes and has been linked to epigenetic changes in DNA methylation (DNAm); however, less understood is the effect of neighborhood-level stressors like crime during pregnancy on offspring DNAm. Using data from the Newborn Epigenetic Study, we conducted epigenome-wide and regional analyses of the association between exposure to neighborhood crime and DNAm in offspring cord blood using Illumina's HumanMethylation450k BeadChip among 185 mother-offspring pairs. Prenatal exposure to neighborhood crime at the census block group level was mapped to participants' residential addresses during the gestational window from the date of last menstrual period to delivery.

Social relationships and immune aging in early midlife: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health.

Aging of the immune system is characterized by changes in the T-cell compartment, including a decrease in naïve T-cells and an increase in memory T-cells. Stress exposures are known to predict accelerated immune aging in older adults. However, social relationships, which are often linked to stress mechanisms, have not been widely studied in relation to these adaptive immune biomarkers, particularly in younger populations.

Mapping fertility trajectories: An endarkened narrative inquiry of Black women's fertility experiences and pathways through infertility treatment.

While existing literature has documented barriers and facilitators to Black women's access to infertility treatment, scholars have a limited understanding of the experiences of Black women who have initiated medically assisted reproduction (MAR), including medicated timed intercourse, intrauterine insemination, and in vitro fertilization. Informed by Black feminism and reproductive justice, this endarkened narrative inquiry leveraged data from the Fertility Equity Study at Morehouse School of Medicine to characterize 41 Black women's infertility treatment outcomes and examine their trajectories through fertility care and infertility treatment. Our analysis provides greater nuance and understanding to Black women's experiences navigating systems of care to address challenges related to conceiving or maintaining a pregnancy.

Risk factors for Alzheimer's disease and cognitive function before middle age in a U.S. representative population-based study.

Background: Alzheimer's disease is a major health concern in the U.S., but most research has focused on older populations.

Challenges in estimating effects of hypothetical interventions on resources patterned by structural racism: An example in a rural North Carolina Medicaid population.

Structural racism has likely shaped the geographic distribution and resource allocation of rural populations and marginalized racial/ethnic groups. We sought to 1) quantify disparities in severe maternal morbidity (SMM) and distributions of resources by race and racial composition of county, and 2) determine whether a hypothetical intervention on resources would reduce racial disparities in SMM, using linked birth certificates and claims from Medicaid beneficiaries giving birth from 2014-2019 in rural North Carolina (61 rural counties, 77,665 births). We used ratio of mediator probability weights to enact a hypothetical intervention that would equalize distributions of pregnancy care provider ratios and obstetric units across race and racial composition of county.

Oil spill cleanup related exposures to benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes, and n-hexane and incident diabetes mellitus.

Background And Objectives: Exposure to benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes, and n-hexane (BTEX-H) may contribute to the development of diabetes. Oil spill response and cleanup (OSRC) workers are exposed to BTEX-H but there are few relevant studies. We studied incident diabetes over 10 years of follow-up among OSRC workers.

Indicators of inequity: Exploring the complexities of operationalizing area-level structural racism.

•Examines two types of area-level indicators commonly used in structural racism and health research.•Uses choropleth maps to assess the spatial patterning of the area-level indicators.•Offers methodological considerations for using area-level indicators.

Racial disparities in maternal exposure to ambient air pollution during pregnancy and prevalence of congenital heart defects.

Air pollution may be a potential cause of congenital heart defects (CHDs), but racial disparities in this association are unexplored. We conducted a statewide population-based cohort study using North Carolina birth data from 2003 to 2015 (n = 1 225 285) to investigate the relationship between air pollution and CHDs (specifically pulmonary valve atresia/stenosis, tetralogy of Fallot [TOF], and atrioventricular septal defect [AVSD]). Maternal exposure to particulate matter ≤ 2.

Familial Loss of a Loved One and Biological Aging: NIMHD Social Epigenomics Program.

Importance: The link between familial loss of a loved one and long-term health decline is complex and not fully understood.

Objective: To test associations of losing a parent, sibling, child, or partner or spouse with accelerated biological aging.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a US population-based longitudinal cohort study, were analyzed.

Racial And Ethnic Inequities In Postpartum Depressive Symptoms, Diagnosis, And Care In 7 US Jurisdictions.

Understanding whether racial and ethnic inequities exist along the postpartum mental health care continuum is vital because inequitable identification of depression can lead to inequitable referral to and receipt of care. We aimed to expand on existing cross-sectional and single-state data documenting potential racial and ethnic disparities in postpartum depression care. Using early (from two to six months) and late (from twelve to fourteen months) postpartum survey data from seven US jurisdictions, we documented patterns of early postpartum depressive symptoms, perinatal mood and anxiety disorder (PMAD) diagnosis, and receipt of postpartum mental health care overall and by racial and ethnic identity.

Identifying groups of children's social mobility opportunity for public health applications using k-means clustering.

Background: The Opportunity Atlas project is a pioneering effort to trace social mobility and adulthood socioeconomic outcomes back to childhood residence. Half of the variation in adulthood socioeconomic outcomes was explainable by neighborhood-level socioeconomic characteristics during childhood. Clustering census tracts by Opportunity Atlas characteristics would allow for further exploration of variance in social mobility.

Are individual-level risk factors for gastroschisis modified by neighborhood-level socioeconomic factors?

Background: Two strong risk factors for gastroschisis are young maternal age (<20 years) and low/normal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), yet the reasons remain unknown. We explored whether neighborhood-level socioeconomic position (nSEP) during pregnancy modified these associations.

Methods: We analyzed data from 1269 gastroschisis cases and 10,217 controls in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (1997-2011).

Early Life Disadvantage and the Risk of Depressive Symptoms among Young Black Women.

Overview: We examined the association between early-life socioeconomic disadvantage and depressive symptoms in adulthood and assessed whether social factors in adulthood modify the association.

Methods: The 11-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D) assessed adult depressive symptoms among 1612 Black women and other participants with a uterus (hereafter participants) in the Study of Environment, Lifestyle and Fibroids. Baseline self-reported childhood factors (i.

Experiences of Racial Discrimination and Periconceptional Diet Quality.

Background: Racism is a key determinant of perinatal health disparities. Poor diet may contribute to this effect, but research on racism and dietary patterns is limited.

Objective: We aimed to describe the relation between experiences of racial discrimination and adherence to the 2015‒2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Understanding the Accumulation of Health-Related Inequities Over the Life Course Using the Mean Cumulative Count.

Understanding how health inequities develop over time is necessary to inform interventions, but methods for doing so are underutilized. We provide an example of the accumulation of stressful life events using the mean cumulative count (MCC), which estimates the expected number of events per person as a function of time, allowing for censoring and competing events. Data came from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, a nationally representative data set.

Cumulative socioeconomic status and incident type 2 diabetes among African American adults from the Jackson heart study.

Background: The cumulative socioeconomic status (SES) model posits that childhood and adult experiences accumulate to influence disease risk. While individual SES indicators such as education and income are independently associated with incident type 2 diabetes (T2D), the association of cumulative SES and incident T2D is unclear, especially in African American adults.

Methods: We utilized cohort data of African American participants (n = 3681, mean age 52.

Neighborhood-level Socioeconomic Position During Early Pregnancy and Risk of Gastroschisis.

Background: Neighborhood-level socioeconomic position has been shown to influence birth outcomes, including selected birth defects. This study examines the un derstudied association between neighborhood-level socioeconomic position during early pregnancy and the risk of gastroschisis, an abdominal birth defect of increasing prevalence.

Methods: We conducted a case-control study of 1,269 gastroschisis cases and 10,217 controls using data from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (1997-2011).

Life-Course Mobility in Socioeconomic Position and High Depressive Symptoms Among Young Black Women: The SELF Study.

Background: Current literature on the association between mobility in socioeconomic position (SEP) and depression demonstrates mixed findings, with variation in the benefits of upward SEP by racial group and ethnic background. No study has examined life-course SEP mobility and depressive symptoms among Black women in the United States.

Methods: Our cohort included 1,612 Black women enrolled in the Study of Environment, Lifestyle and Fibroids between 2010 and 2012 and followed for 5 years.

Gestational organophosphate ester exposure and preschool attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child cohort study.

Background: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity-disorder (ADHD) is a leading neurodevelopmental disorder in children worldwide; however, few modifiable risk factors have been identified. Organophosphate esters (OPEs) are ubiquitous chemical compounds that are increasingly prevalent as a replacement for other regulated chemicals. Current research has linked OPEs to neurodevelopmental deficits.