Nutrition, Stress and Bone in Older Puerto Ricans

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Puerto Rican older adults living in the U.S. mainland have been identified as a group highly at-risk of excess chronic conditions. While it is clear that Puerto Ricans suffer from several chronic health conditions, much less is known about how osteoporosis, a major public health threat in the U.S., affects this population. We propose to extend our work in the currently ongoing cohort of 1,200 Puerto Rican adults, aged 50-75 y at baseline, who are participating in the Boston Puerto Rican Center on Population Health and Health Disparities [NIA Grant No. 5P01AG023394-02]. Because considerable amounts of data are already being collected with this cohort, the addition of bone related measurements to this study will provide a highly efficient way to examine additional hypotheses on nutrition and bone mineral density. We aim to 1) assess the status of bone mineral density in a group of Boston Puerto Rican adults, aged 52-77 y; 2) examine associations between dietary factors and BMD of the hip, spine, and total body and markers of bone turnover; 3) examine associations between stress and inflammation and BMD of the hip, spine, heel, and total body and markers of bone turnover; and 4)examine how dietary factors modulate the association between candidate genes and measures of bone health including BMD of the hip, spine, and total body and markers of bone turnover. This proposed project addresses the mission defined in the new NIH roadmap, to improve the nation's health by uncovering new knowledge in the prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment of disease and disability, with the ultimate goal of reducing and eliminating health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities.