Origin of Chronic Diseases of Aging Among Rural African American Young Adults

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PROJECT SUMMARY The current proposal builds upon an ongoing investigation to test hypotheses about (1) the role of psychosocial stressors in “weathering” young bodies, (2) the protective factors that may mitigate their adverse impact, and (3) the role of continuity and change in weathering during a key life course transition. Tests of these hypotheses will enable a better understanding of the role of weathering in forecasting chronic diseases of aging (CDAs) among rural African Americans and set the stage for prevention programming for this vulnerable population. Using recently-developed, direct measures of biological weathering we have found that, by age 20, some SHAPE youth are already experiencing accelerated aging due to psychosocial context. The transition to adulthood provides an opportunity to examine the impact of both new and continuing sources of risk and resilience on weathering and ultimately on CDA vulnerability during this important transition period, allowing us to closely examine the potential for adverse and protective experiences to “bend” the risk curve for future CDAs and so illuminate key targets for preventive intervention. Here, we request funds to supplement the SHAPE study by using blood from an ongoing NICHD-sponsored data collection protocol to characterize each participant's “epigenetic clock” at age 26, providing a key window on weathering and changes in weathering and so allow us to conduct enhanced tests of theory and to more accurately identify high value targets for preventive intervention. By adding this assessment we will have a data set with measures of biological weathering at age 20 and age 26, along with a full complement of indicators of metabolic syndrome, a precursor to type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. This assessment will place no additional burden on SHAPE participants and will substantially increase the public health value of the data set. First, we will examine the impact of exposure to multidimensional SES- and race-related stressors during the transition to adulthood on changes in biological weathering. We expect exposure to stressors, particularly racial discrimination, to play a key role in maintaining or accelerating weathering processes across young adulthood and to presage CDA vulnerability (i.e. metabolic risk and inflammation). Second, we will identify positive, protective influences, both inside and outside the family, that help shift African American young adults off the above-mentioned trajectory to CDAs. We anticipate that these factors will be especially important for young adults who enter the transition to adulthood with already-accelerated weathering. The results of the proposed study will inform the development of preventive interventions designed to slow biological weathering and promote health for a population at high risk for early development of CDAs. By examining not only risk factors for accelerated aging but also protective environments and coping processes that presage a deceleration of biological aging across young adulthood, we will have the necessary ingredients for a new generation of prevention programs designed specifically to deter weathering and promote the health and well-being of rural African Americans, thereby addressing well-documented health disparities.