Publications by authors named "P Waterman"
Importance: Epigenetic age acceleration is associated with exposure to social and economic adversity and may increase the risk of premature morbidity and mortality. However, no studies have included measures of structural racism, and few have compared estimates within or across the first and second generation of epigenetic clocks.
Objective: To determine whether epigenetic age acceleration is positively associated with exposures to diverse measures of racialized, economic, and environmental injustice measured at different levels and time periods.
Importance: Epigenetic accelerated aging is associated with exposure to social and economic adversity and may increase risk of premature morbidity and mortality. However, no studies have included measures of structural racism and few have compared estimates within or across the 1 and 2 generation of epigenetic clocks (the latter additionally trained on phenotypic data).
Objective: To determine if accelerated epigenetic aging is associated with exposures to diverse measures of racialized, economic, and environmental injustice measured at different levels and time periods.
Importance: DNA methylation (DNAm) provides a plausible mechanism by which adverse exposures become embodied and contribute to health inequities, due to its role in genome regulation and responsiveness to social and biophysical exposures tied to societal context. However, scant epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) have included structural and lifecourse measures of exposure, especially in relation to structural discrimination.
Objective: Our study tests the hypothesis that DNAm is a mechanism by which racial discrimination, economic adversity, and air pollution become biologically embodied.
Article Synopsis
- Epigenetic clocks help scientists understand how different factors affect healthy aging, including social conditions, but there isn’t enough focus on who the participants in studies are.
- The characteristics of participants, like age, gender, and race, are important since they can influence results and health outcomes.
- Many studies don’t report this information well, making it hard for other researchers to know if the models they create will work for different kinds of people.
Objectives: The focus of this study was to calculate and contextualize response rates for a community-based study conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, a topic on which scant data exist, and to share lessons learned from recruiting and enrolling for implementation of future studies.
Design: The Life+Health Study, a cross-sectional population-based study designed to advance novel methods to measure and analyze multiple forms of discrimination for population health research.
Setting: The study recruited participants from 3 community health centers in Boston, Massachusetts, between May 2020 and July 2022.