A Lifecourse Approach to Emerging Health Disparities in a US Birth Cohort

描述(由申请人提供)：拟议的研究提供了新的数据，说明在生命过程中出现的种族和社会经济健康差异。我们考察了三个因素的交集和相互影响--社会经济地位(SES)、认知能力和健康本身。现有的研究充分表明，社会经济地位的指标预测健康结果，健康影响社会经济成就，认知能力预测教育成就和健康。但是，SES、认知能力和健康之间的这种联系是如何在生命过程中产生的呢？种族歧视在影响这些因素中的每一个从而造成种族差异方面发挥了什么作用？这些因素在生命过程中动态相互作用的理论被认为是为了解释在一般健康、肥胖、呼吸功能和抑郁方面出现种族和社会经济差异的原因。加州的一个队列，儿童健康和发展研究-青少年样本(CHDS-A)(n=2020)，出生于1959-1966，为评估这一理论提供了新的数据。从出生前到15-17岁，在多个时间点收集了黑人和白人子女及其家人的详细信息。样本中包括了来自高SES和低SES家族的足够数量的黑人和白人后代。已经收集的数据包括在儿童期和青春期对SES、认知能力和选定的健康领域的评估。这个项目将增加42-49岁的评估。对积累的数据的分析将阐明健康差距的根本来源之间的关系，并为旨在减少这种不平等的政策和干预措施的制定提供信息。公共卫生相关性：按社会经济地位和种族划分的健康差距是需要解决的重大公共卫生问题。这项研究将提供来自跨种族出生队列的新数据，该队列在青春期一直受到密切关注，目前已进入中年。对拟议研究中收集的关键数据的分析将创造一个不同寻常的机会，以了解生命过程中何时以及为什么会出现健康差距，并为制定干预措施的内容和时机以改善观察到的差距提供进一步指导。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed research brings novel data to bear on the emergence of racial and socioeconomic disparities in health over the life course. We examine the intersection and mutual influence of three factors-socioeconomic status (SES), cognitive ability, and health itself. Extant research has demonstrated amply that indicators of SES predict health outcomes, that health affects socioeconomic attainment, and that cognitive ability predicts both educational attainment and health. But how do such associations between SES, cognitive ability, and health arise over the life course? And what role does racial discrimination play in influencing each of these factors to create disparities by race? A theory of dynamic interplay of these factors across the life course is posited to explain the emergence of racial and socioeconomic disparities in general health, obesity, respiratory function, and depression. A California-based cohort, the Child Health and Development Study-Adolescent Sample (CHDS-A) (n=2020), born 1959-1966, provides the novel data to evaluate this theory. Detailed information was collected at multiple time points from before birth until age 15-17 years for black and white offspring and their families. Sufficient numbers of black and white offspring from both high and low SES families were included in the sample. The data already collected include assessments during childhood and adolescence of SES, cognitive ability, and the selected domains of health. This project will add assessments at age 42-49 years. Analysis of the accumulated data will elucidate the relationships among fundamental sources of health disparities and inform the construction of policies and interventions designed to reduce such inequalities. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Health disparities by socioeconomic status and race represent major public health issues in need of resolution. This study will provide novel data from a bi-racial birth cohort that has been intensively followed through adolescence and is now in middle-age adulthood. The analysis of key data collected in the proposed study will create an unusual opportunity to understand when and why health disparities emerge over the life course, and further guidance for shaping the content and timing of interventions to ameliorate observed disparities.