The Relationship of Duffy Gene Polymorphism with High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein, Mortality, and Cardiovascular Outcomes in Black Individuals.

Black adults have higher incidence of all-cause mortality and worse cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes when compared to other U.S. populations.

Lifetime chronic stress exposures, stress hormones, and biological aging: Results from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study.

Psychosocial stress and adversity have been linked to accelerated aging and increased risk for age-related diseases. Animal and in vitro studies have shown that exposure to stress hormones (catecholamines, glucocorticoids) can impact biological aging processes such as DNA damage and cellular senescence, suggesting they play a key role in links between stress and aging; however, these associations have not been well investigated in humans. We examined cross-sectional associations between chronic stress exposures, stress hormones, and biological aging markers in midlife adults and whether stress hormones mediated associations between stress and aging.

Explaining adverse cholesterol levels and distinct gender patterns in an Indonesian population compared with the U.S.

Cardiovascular disease is among the most common causes of death around the world. As rising incomes in low and middle-income countries are accompanied by increased obesity, the burden of disease shifts towards non-communicable diseases, and lower-income settings make up a growing share of cardiovascular disease deaths. Comparative investigation of the roles of body composition, behavioral and socioeconomic factors across countries can shed light on both the biological and social drivers of cardiovascular disease more broadly.

A dyadic longitudinal analysis of parent-adolescent inflammation trends and the role of shared socioeconomic characteristics on family inflammation.

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the interdependency of parent-adolescent inflammation trends across time and to examine whether shared family socioeconomic characteristics explained between-family differences in parents' and adolescents' risk for inflammation. A total of N = 348 families, consisting of one parent and one adolescent child, were followed every two years in a three-wave longitudinal study. Sociodemographic questionnaires were used to determine parental educational attainment and family income-to-needs ratio (INR).

Understanding the implementation and sustainability needs of evidence-based programs for racial and ethnic minoritized older adults in under-resourced communities with limited aging services.

Background: Evidence-based programs (EBPs) for older adults effectively improve health outcomes. However, there is a limited understanding of the unique needs of service providers as they consider adopting, implementing, and maintaining programs for older minority adults in low-income communities with limited aging services.

Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with key informants of community-based organizations (CBOs) to understand implementation and sustainability needs of CBOs within four racial and ethnically diverse Los Angeles County geographic areas.

Evidence for the Association Between Adverse Childhood Family Environment, Child Abuse, and Caregiver Warmth and Cardiovascular Health Across the Lifespan: The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study.

Background: This study aimed to quantify the association between childhood family environment and longitudinal cardiovascular health (CVH) in adult CARDIA (Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults) Study participants. We further investigated whether the association differs by adult income.

Methods: We applied the CVH framework from the American Heart Association including metrics for smoking, cholesterol, blood pressure, glucose, body mass index, physical activity, and diet.

Harmonization of four biomarkers across nine nationally representative studies of older persons.

Introduction: A growing number of international population surveys have included measurement of biomarkers, but differ in the type of specimens collected, sample processing procedures, shipment protocols, and laboratory assay platforms. The purpose of this study is to harmonize biomarker data from nine nationally representative studies of people 50 years of age and over by adjusting for assay platforms and type of specimens for total cholesterol (total-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), and C-reactive protein (CRP).

Methods: Sets of 24 identical serum, plasma, whole blood, and dried blood spot harmonization samples with known analyte levels were generated at a reference laboratory, shipped at -80°C to the respective study laboratories, and subsequently assayed following the study laboratory's protocol.

Investigating the relationship between participation in the building infrastructure leading to diversity (BUILD) initiative and intent to pursue a science career: A cross-sectional analysis.

This paper presents an analysis of survey data to examine the association between supervised structured mentoring and students' intent to pursue a career in science. Data were collected from students in the 10 Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) research training programs, developed through grants from the National Institutes of Health. Propensity score matching and multinomial logistic regression demonstrated that exposure to BUILD programs-meaning participation in undergraduate research, receipt of mentoring from a primary mentor, and/or participation as a funded scholar and/or associate of each BUILD site's training program-was associated with increased intent to pursue a science career.

Exposure to the Indian Ocean Tsunami shapes the HPA-axis resulting in HPA "burnout" 14 years later.

Despite significant research on the effects of stress on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, questions remain regarding long-term impacts of large-scale stressors. Leveraging data on exposure to an unanticipated major natural disaster, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, we provide causal evidence of its imprint on hair cortisol levels fourteen years later. Data are drawn from the Study of the Tsunami Aftermath and Recovery, a population-representative longitudinal study of tsunami survivors who were living along the coast of Aceh, Indonesia, when the tsunami hit.

Cardiovascular variability, sociodemographics, and biomarkers of disease: the MIDUS study.

Like heart rate, blood pressure (BP) is not steady but varies over intervals as long as months to as short as consecutive cardiac cycles. This blood pressure variability (BPV) consists of regularly occurring oscillations as well as less well-organized changes and typically is computed as the standard deviation of multiple clinic visit-to-visit (VVV-BP) measures or from 24-h ambulatory BP recordings (ABPV). BP also varies on a beat-to-beat basis, quantified by methods that parse variation into discrete bins, e.

Social relationships and epigenetic aging in older adulthood: Results from the Health and Retirement Study.

Growing evidence suggests that social relationship quality can influence age-related health outcomes, although how the quality of one's relationships directly relates to the underlying aging process is less clear. We hypothesized that the absence of close relationships as well as lower support and higher strain within existing relationships would be associated with an accelerated epigenetic aging profile among older adults in the Health and Retirement Study. Adults (N = 3,647) aged 50-100 years completed ratings of support and strain in relationships with their spouse, children, other family members, and friends.

The Relationship of Duffy Gene Polymorphism, High Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein, and Long-term Outcomes.

Background: Black adults have higher incidence of all-cause death and worse cardiovascular outcomes when compared to other populations. The Duffy chemokine receptor is not expressed in a large majority of Black adults and the clinical implications of this are unclear.

Methods: Here, we investigated the relationship of Duffy receptor status, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and long-term cardiovascular outcomes in Black members of two contemporary, longitudinal cohort studies (the Jackson Heart Study and Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis).

Short Sleep and Insomnia Are Associated With Accelerated Epigenetic Age.

Objective: Short sleep and insomnia are each associated with a greater risk of age-related disease, which suggests that insufficient sleep may accelerate biological aging. We examine whether short sleep and insomnia alone or together relates to epigenetic age among older adults.

Methods: A total of 3795 men (46.

Associations of Early-Life Adversity With Later-Life Epigenetic Aging Profiles in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.

Epigenetic biomarkers of accelerated aging have been widely used to predict disease risk and may enhance our understanding of biological mechanisms between early-life adversity and disparities in aging. With respect to childhood adversity, most studies have used parental education or childhood disadvantage and/or have not examined the role played by socioemotional or physical abuse and trauma in epigenetic profiles at older ages. This study leveraged data from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) on experiences of threat and deprivation in participants' early lives (i.

The effect of poverty on the relationship between household education levels and obesity in U.S. children and adolescents: an observational study.

Background: Although ample evidence has shown the link between childhood obesity and socioeconomic status including family income and household education levels, the mediating role of poverty in the association between household education levels and childhood obesity is unclear. This study aimed to quantify the extent to which family poverty levels contribute to the association between household education levels and obesity among US children and adolescents.

Methods: This cohort study used the nationally representative data of 21,754 US children and adolescents aged 6-17 years (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2018).

Social genomics, cognition, and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction: Adverse psychosocial exposure is associated with increased proinflammatory gene expression and reduced type-1 interferon gene expression, a profile known as the conserved transcriptional response to adversity (CTRA). Little is known about CTRA activity in the context of cognitive impairment, although chronic inflammatory activation has been posited as one mechanism contributing to late-life cognitive decline.

Methods: We studied 171 community-dwelling older adults from the Wake Forest Alzheimer's Disease Research Center who answered questions via a telephone questionnaire battery about their perceived stress, loneliness, well-being, and impact of COVID-19 on their life, and who provided a self-collected dried blood spot sample.

Gauging treatment impact: The development of exposure variables in a large-scale evaluation study.

While guidance on how to design rigorous evaluation studies abounds, prescriptive guidance on how to include critical process and context measures through the construction of exposure variables is lacking. Capturing nuanced intervention dosage information within a large-scale evaluation is particularly complex. The Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) initiative is part of the Diversity Program Consortium, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Towards a consensus definition of allostatic load: a multi-cohort, multi-system, multi-biomarker individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis.

Background: Allostatic load (AL) is a multi-system composite index for quantifying physiological dysregulation caused by life course stressors. For over 30 years, an extensive body of research has drawn on the AL framework but has been hampered by the lack of a consistent definition.

Methods: This study analyses data for 67,126 individuals aged 40-111 years participating in 13 different cohort studies and 40 biomarkers across 12 physiological systems: hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, sympathetic-adrenal-medullary (SAM) axis, parasympathetic nervous system functioning, oxidative stress, immunological/inflammatory, cardiovascular, respiratory, lipidemia, anthropometric, glucose metabolism, kidney, and liver.

Childhood environment early life stress, caregiver warmth, and associations with the cortisol diurnal curve in adulthood: The coronary artery risk development in young adults (CARDIA) study.

Background: Early life stress (ELS) is associated with increased morbidity and mortality across the lifecourse. Studies observing a relationship between ELS and stress physiology (cortisol), may help explain the connection to poor health outcomes, but have been limited by cortisol measures used.

Purpose: We examined the association between ELS measured by a Risky Family (RF) environment questionnaire, and adult diurnal cortisol profile inclusive of multiple cortisol measures.

Personal Health Literacy and Life Simple 7: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.

Background: Personal Health literacy (PHL) is essential in cardiovascular risk management. Hindrances in PHL can lead to poor cardiovascular outcomes.

Purpose: To investigate whether limited PHL is associated with lower likelihoods of i) overall cardiovascular health and ii) individual cardiovascular health components as defined by the American Heart Association's Life Simple (LS7).

Heterogeneity in the Association Between the Presence of Coronary Artery Calcium and Cardiovascular Events: A Machine-Learning Approach in the MESA Study.

Background: Coronary artery calcium (CAC) has been widely recognized as an important predictor of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Given the finite resources, it is important to identify individuals who would receive the most benefit from detecting positive CAC by screening. However, the evidence is limited as to whether the burden of positive CAC on CVD differs by multidimensional individual characteristics.