Historical Structural Racism in the Built Environment and Physical Health among Residents of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

Historical structural racism in the built environment contributes to health inequities, yet to date, research has almost exclusively focused on racist policy of redlining. We expand upon this conceptualization of historical structural racism by examining the potential associations of probable blockbusting, urban renewal, and proximity to displacement from freeway construction, along with redlining, to multiple contemporary health measures. Analyses linked historical structural racism, measured continuously at the census-tract level using archival data sources, to present-day residents' physical health measures drawn from publicly accessible records for Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Outcome measures included average life expectancy and the percentage of residents reporting hypertension, stroke, coronary heart disease, smoking, insufficient sleep, sedentary behavior, and no health insurance coverage. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine separate and additive associations between structural racism and physical health measures. Redlining, probable blockbusting, and urban renewal were associated with shorter life expectancy and a higher prevalence of cardiovascular conditions, risky health behaviors, and residents lacking health insurance coverage. Probable blockbusting and urban renewal had the most consistent correlations with all 8 health measures, while freeway displacement was not reliably associated with health. Additive models explained a greater proportion of variance in health than any individual structural racism measure alone. Moreover, probable blockbusting and urban renewal accounted for relatively more variance in health compared to redlining, suggesting that research should consider these other measures in addition to redlining. These preliminary correlational findings underscore the importance of considering multiple aspects of historical structural racism in relation to current health inequities and serve as a starting point for additional research.

Sex-specific associations between childhood trauma and adult systemic inflammation in daily life.

OBJECTIVE: Childhood trauma may contribute to lifelong health through chronic systemic inflammation. However, associations between childhood trauma and inflammation are mixed, indicating that distinct types of childhood trauma may relate to inflammation differently. Moreover, most studies use a single assessment of inflammatory markers that may not reliably estimate stable interindividual differences. The current study is the first to examine relationships between childhood trauma and an ecologically valid measure of inflammation derived from repeated assessments of interleukin (IL)-6 in daily life. We also examine the possibility that glucocorticoid sensitivity and patterns of daily cortisol may contribute to observed associations. Finally, we explore whether biological sex moderates relationships between childhood trauma and IL-6. METHOD: Participants were 283 healthy adults aged 40-64 (57% female, 23% Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) who completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and self-collected dried blood spots at home on 4 days to measure IL-6. Measures of salivary cortisol and blood-based glucocorticoid sensitivity were also assessed. RESULTS: Childhood trauma was not associated with IL-6 in the sample as a whole. However, exploratory analyses showed that childhood trauma related to IL-6 differently for males and females, such that total trauma and emotional neglect predicted higher IL-6 for males but not females. Results persisted after adjustment for covariates. There was no evidence for indirect effects via cortisol or glucocorticoid sensitivity. CONCLUSIONS: Childhood trauma and, specifically, emotional neglect were associated with IL-6 in daily life among middle-aged males. Additional research is needed to elucidate biological and behavioral pathways underlying these associations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Childhood trauma and hair cortisol response over the year following onset of a chronic life event stressor.

OBJECTIVE: Childhood trauma may contribute to poor lifelong health in part through programming of the HPA-axis response to future life stressors. To date, empirical evidence shows an association of childhood trauma with dysregulation of the HPA-axis and blunted cortisol reactivity to acute stressors. Here, we conduct an initial examination of childhood trauma as a moderator of changes over time in perceived stress levels and HPA-axis response to a major chronic stressor in adulthood. METHODS: Participants were 83 maternal caregivers of children newly diagnosed with cancer who completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), and who, over the year following their child's cancer diagnosis, had hair samples collected up to 7 times for the assessment of cortisol and completed monthly measures of perceived stress. RESULTS: CTQ scores were in the expected range for a community sample and associated with changes in perceived stress and cortisol concentration over time (γ =.003, p =.002; γ = -.0004, p =.008, respectively) independently of age, education, treatment intensity and randomization to stress management intervention. Maternal caregivers who endorsed lower childhood trauma showed a steeper decline in perceived stress and a larger increase in cortisol levels across the year than caregivers who recalled more childhood trauma. CONCLUSIONS: Findings extend animal models and studies that examine cortisol reactivity to acute stressors and suggest that childhood trauma may program a phenotype that is more psychologically reactive but shows a blunted HPA-axis response to chronic stress. While adaptive in the short-term, this early life programming may incur long-term costs for health. Further work is warranted to examine this possibility.

Duration of Breastfeeding and Supportive Paternal Caregiving in Early Childhood and the Potential Mediating Function of Maternal Caregiving.

OBJECTIVE: Supportive paternal caregiving is influenced by contextual factors, including maternal caregiving behaviors. Although longer periods of breastfeeding have been found to be associated with higher levels of maternal supportive parenting, it remains unknown whether the benefits of breastfeeding also extend to fathers' supportive caregiving. This study tested the indirect relation between the duration of breastfeeding and paternal supportive parenting through maternal supportive parenting. METHODS: Participating families (N = 623) were from the Behavior Outlook Norwegian Developmental Study, a population-based longitudinal study in Southeast Norway. Path analysis was used to test associations between the duration of breastfeeding in the first year (parent report) and paternal supportive parenting (observed, 36 months), as potentially mediated by maternal supportive parenting (observed, 24 months). RESULTS: After controlling for sociodemographic and birth factors, a longer duration of breastfeeding was indirectly associated with higher levels of observed paternal supportive parenting through maternal supportive parenting. CONCLUSION: The current findings suggest that the longer breastfeeding duration during the first year of life (i.e., infancy) might have important implications for both maternal and paternal supportive parenting in toddlerhood.

Systemic Inflammation Contributes to the Association Between Childhood Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Midlife Cardiometabolic Risk.

BACKGROUND: Childhood socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with increased risk for chronic inflammation and cardiometabolic disease at midlife. PURPOSE: As it is presently unknown whether inflammation mediates the relationship between childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and adulthood cardiometabolic risk, we investigated associations between retrospectively reported childhood SES, circulating levels of inflammatory markers, and a latent construct of cardiometabolic risk in midlife adults. METHODS: Participants were 1,359 healthy adults aged 30-54 (Adult Health and Behavior Iⅈ 52% women, 17% Black) who retrospectively reported childhood SES (parental education, occupational grade). Measures included plasma interleukin (IL)-6, C-reactive protein (CRP), and cardiometabolic risk factors. Structural equation modeling was conducted, with cardiometabolic risk modeled as a second-order latent variable with adiposity, blood lipids, glucose control, and blood pressure as first-order components. RESULTS: Lower childhood SES was associated with greater risk for cardiometabolic disease at midlife (ß = -0.08, CI[-0.04, -0.01], p = .01) in models adjusted for demographics, but this association was attenuated in models that adjusted for adulthood SES and health behaviors. In fully-adjusted models, the relationship between lower childhood SES and adult cardiometabolic risk was partially explained by higher circulating levels of CRP (ß = -0.05, CI[-0.02, -0.01], p = .001), but not by IL-6. In an exploratory model, lower adulthood SES was also found to independently contribute to the association between childhood SES and adult cardiometabolic risk (ß = -0.02, CI[-0.01, -0.001], p = .02). CONCLUSIONS: The current study provides initial evidence that systemic inflammation may contribute to childhood socioeconomic disparities in cardiometabolic risk in midlife. Future work would benefit from prospective investigation of these relationships.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of the stability of peripheral immune markers in healthy adults.

Peripheral immune markers are widely used to predict risk for inflammatory disease. However, whether single assessments of inflammatory biomarkers represent stable individual differences remains unclear. We reviewed 50 studies (N = 48,674; 57 % male; mean age 54 (range 13-79) years) that assessed markers of inflammation on >1 occasion, with time between measures ranging from 24 h to 7+ years. Separate random effects meta-analyses were conducted for each inflammatory marker and time interval. Markers that had broad coverage across most time intervals included C-reactive protein (CRP; k = 37), interleukin (IL)-6 (k = 22), TNF-α (k = 10), and fibrinogen (Fg; k = 9). For CRP, IL-6, and TNF-α, stability estimates generally decreased with time, with strong to moderate stability over intervals <6 months (r's = 0.80-0.61), modest to moderate stability over 6 months - 3 years (r's = 0.60-0.51), and low stability for >3 years (r's = 0.39-0.30). Estimates were less reliable for Fg for time intervals ≤ 3 years although they generally followed the same pattern; more reliable findings suggested greater stability for Fg than other markers for intervals >3 years (r = 0.53). These findings suggest that single measures of inflammatory biomarkers may be an adequate index of stable individual differences in the short term (<6 months), with repeated measures of inflammatory biomarkers recommended over intervals ≥ 6 months to 3 years, and absolutely necessary over intervals >3 years to reliably identify stable individual differences in health risk. These findings are consistent with stability estimates and clinical recommendations for repeated measurement of other cardiovascular measures of risk (e.g., blood lipids, blood pressure).

Duration of Breastfeeding Mediates the Association Between Early Socioeconomic Risk and Child Vocabulary at Age 4.

OBJECTIVE: Early-life socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with both obesity and lower cognitive abilities in childhood. One theorized underlying mechanism is breastfeeding duration because breast milk contains nutrients that can promote healthy adiposity profiles and stimulate brain development. However, studies have rarely examined these potential associations with child body mass index (BMI) in high-income Western countries, much less investigated breastfeeding duration as a mediator of the relationship between childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and later child vocabulary. The current study aimed to prospectively examine associations between early-life family socioeconomic risk and both child BMI and vocabulary at age 4 in a Norwegian cohort and the potential mediating contribution of breastfeeding duration. METHODS: The Behavior Outlook Norwegian Developmental Study (BONDS) followed 1159 families and their children from 6 months of age onward. Parents reported on SES and breastfeeding duration in infancy, and child BMI and vocabulary ability were assessed at age 4. Direct and indirect effects were estimated using a path model that adjusted for several demographic and perinatal covariates (e.g., parental nativity and birthweight). RESULTS: Family socioeconomic risk was significantly and negatively related to child vocabulary but was unrelated to child BMI. In addition, breastfeeding duration mediated the association between family socioeconomic risk and child vocabulary, with greater family socioeconomic risk associated with a shorter breastfeeding duration, which, in turn, predicted poorer child vocabulary. CONCLUSION: The current findings suggest that longer breastfeeding duration is a viable target for preventatively promoting child vocabulary, especially among families at socioeconomic risk.

Eyes shut homolog is required for maintaining the ciliary pocket and survival of photoreceptors in zebrafish.

Mutations in the extracellular matrix protein eyes shut homolog (EYS) cause photoreceptor degeneration in patients with retinitis pigmentosa 25 (RP25). Functions of EYS remain poorly understood, due in part to the lack of an EYS gene in mouse. We investigated the localization of vertebrate EYS proteins and engineered loss-of-function alleles in zebrafish. Immunostaining indicated that EYS localized near the connecting cilium/transition zone in photoreceptors. EYS also strongly localized to the cone outer segments and weakly to the rod outer segments and cone terminals in primate retinas. Analysis of mutant EYS zebrafish revealed disruption of the ciliary pocket in cone photoreceptors, indicating that EYS is required for maintaining the integrity of the ciliary pocket lumen. Mutant zebrafish exhibited progressive loss of cone and rod photoreceptors. Our results indicate that EYS protein localization is species-dependent and that EYS is required for maintaining ciliary pocket morphology and survival of photoreceptors in zebrafish.