Genetic and Psychosocial Predictors of Blood Pressure and Body Mass Index

描述（由申请人提供）：有一种新兴的共识认为，个体健康结果是多种因素的结果，从生物学到社会，并且正确理解和量化基因和环境在疾病病因中的病因作用将需要考虑基因与环境的相互作用。然而，理解个人健康结果原因的传统方法仍然分为“生物学”和“社会”两种方法。正如这一范式往往不能充分解释个人健康结果的原因一样，它也不能充分解释人口水平上健康结果的差异。尽管关于高血压和肥胖的种族和民族差异的文献一再出现，但关于其根本原因仍存在大量争论。确定导致人群血压和/或体重指数（BMI）持续和显著差异的因素范围，对于制定减少这些差异的有效策略至关重要。健康退休研究（HRS）是进行生物学和社会交叉研究的关键队列，因为它是一项具有全国代表性的纵向面板研究，超过26,000名50岁以上的成年人（每两年调查一次）。HRS中血压和BMI测量的丰富组合以及基因组数据为在大型队列研究中调查遗传、社会经济和社会心理因素对血压和BMI的贡献提供了重要机会，以实现以下具体目标：目的1：在来自健康与退休研究的近16,000名多种族队列中估计血压和体重指数（BMI）的分子遗传力。目的2：研究60个基因区域的基因水平和snp水平的相关性，这些基因区域与血压和BMI有显著和重复的关联证据。目的3：研究社会经济地位和社会心理因素作为分子遗传力、基因水平关联和snp水平与血压和BMI的关联的修饰因子。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is an emerging consensus that individual health outcomes are a result of multiple factors that range from biological to societal and that the proper understanding and quantification of the etiologic roles of genes and environments in the causation of diseases will require consideration of gene by environment interactions. However, traditional approaches to understanding the causes of individual health outcomes remain fragmented into "biological" and "social" approaches. Just as this paradigm often falls short in adequately explaining the causes for individual health outcomes, it also fails to adequately explain disparities in health outcomes at the population level. Despite the repeated documentation of racial and ethnic disparities in hypertension and obesity there is still substantial debate about their root causes. Identifying the range of factors that lead to the persistent and pronounced differences in the blood pressures and/or body mass index (BMI) of populations is critical for developing effective strategies for reducing these disparities. The Health Retirement Study (HRS) is a key cohort in which to conduct research at the intersection of the biological and social since it is a nationally- representative longitudinal panel study of oer 26,000 adults over age 50 (surveyed every two years). The rich combination of the blood pressure and BMI measures along with genomic data in the HRS presents an important opportunity to investigate the contribution of genetic, socioeconomic, and psychosocial factors to blood pressure and BMI in a large cohort study to accomplish the following specific aims: Aim 1: Estimate molecular-based heritability of blood pressure and body mass index (BMI) in a multi-ethnic cohort of nearly 16,000 older adults from the Health and Retirement Study. Aim 2: Investigate the gene-level and SNP-level associations of 60 gene regions that have significant and replicated evidence of association with blood pressure and BMI. Aim 3: Investigate socioeconomic status and psychosocial factors as modifiers of the molecular-based heritability, gene-level associations, and SNP-level associations with blood pressure and BMI.