Black-White Risk Differentials in COVID-19 (SARS-COV2) Transmission, Mortality and Case Fatality in the United States: Translational Epidemiologic Perspective and Challenges.

Background: Social and health inequities predispose vulnerable populations to adverse morbidity and mortality outcomes of epidemics and pandemics. While racial disparities in cumulative incidence (CmI) and mortality from the influenza pandemics of 1918 and 2009 implicated Blacks with survival disadvantage relative to Whites in the United States, COVID-19 currently indicates comparable disparities. We aimed to: (a) assess COVID-19 CmI by race, (b) determine the Black-White case fatality (CF) and risk differentials, and (c) apply explanatory model for mortality risk differentials.

Implication of Vaginal and Cesarean Section Delivery Method in Black-White Differentials in Infant Mortality in the United States: Linked Birth/Infant Death Records, 2007-2016.

Racial/ethnic disparities in infant mortality (IM) continue to persist in the United States, with Black/African Americans (AA) being disproportionally affected with a three-fold increase in mortality compared to Whites. Epidemiological data have identified maternal characteristics in IM risk such as preeclampsia, eclampsia, maternal education, smoking, maternal weight, maternal socioeconomic status (SES), and family structure. Understanding the social gradient in health including implicit bias, as inherent in the method of labor and delivery and the racial heterogeneity, may facilitate intervention mapping in narrowing the Black-White IM risk differences.

Implication of Spiritual Network Support System in Epigenomic Modulation and Health Trajectory.

With challenges in understanding the multifactorial etiologies of disease and individual treatment effect heterogeneities over the past four decades, much has been acquired on how physical, chemical and social environments affect human health, predisposing certain subpopulations to adverse health outcomes, especially the socio-environmentally disadvantaged (SED). Current translational data on gene and adverse environment interaction have revealed how adverse gene-environment interaction, termed aberrant epigenomic modulation, translates into impaired gene expression via messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) dysregulation, reflecting abnormal protein synthesis and hence dysfunctional cellular differentiation and maturation. The environmental influence on gene expression observed in most literature includes physical, chemical, physicochemical and recently social environment.

Aberrant Epigenomic Modulation of Glucocorticoid Receptor Gene (NR3C1) in Early Life Stress and Major Depressive Disorder Correlation: Systematic Review and Quantitative Evidence Synthesis.

Early life stress (ELS) induced by psychological trauma, child maltreatment, maternal separation, and domestic violence predisposes to psycho-behavioral pathologies during adulthood, namely major depressive disorder (MDD), anxiety, and bipolar affective disorder. While environmental data are available in illustrating this association, data remain to be established on the epigenomic underpinning of the nexus between ELS and MDD predisposition. Specifically, despite the observed aberrant epigenomic modulation of the NR3C1, a glucocorticoid receptor gene, in early social adversity and social threats in animal and human models, reliable scientific data for intervention mapping in reducing social adversity and improving human health is required.