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Genetic moderation of multiple pathways linking early cumulative socioeconomic adversity and young adults' cardiometabolic disease risk

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2017

Kandauda A. S. Wickrama ,
Tae Kyoung Lee  and
Catherine Walker O'Neal
Kandauda A. S. Wickrama
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
Tae Kyoung Lee
Affiliation:
University of Miami
Catherine Walker O'Neal*
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Catherine Walker O'Neal, Department of Human Development and Family Science, University of Georgia, 107 Family Science Center II, 405 Sanford Drive, Athens, GA 30602; E-mail: cwalker1@uga.edu.
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Abstract

Recent research suggests that psychosocial resources and life stressors are mediating pathways explaining socioeconomic variation in young adults' health risks. However, less research has examined both these pathways simultaneously and their genetic moderation. A nationally representative sample of 11,030 respondents with prospective data collected over 13 years from the National Study of Adolescent to Adult Health was examined. First, the association between early cumulative socioeconomic adversity and young adults' (ages 25–34) cardiometabolic disease risk, as measured by 10 biomarkers, through psychosocial resources (educational attainment) and life stressors (accelerated transition to adulthood) was examined. Second, moderation of these pathways by the serotonin transporter linked polymorphic region gene (5-HTTLPR) was examined. There was evidence for the association between early socioeconomic adversity and young adults' cardiometabolic disease risk directly and indirectly through educational attainment and accelerated transitions. These direct and mediating pathways were amplified by the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism. These findings elucidate how early adversity can have an enduring influence on young adults' cardiometabolic disease risk directly and indirectly through psychosocial resources and life stressors and their genetic moderation. This information suggests that effective intervention and prevention programs should focus on early adversity, youth educational attainment, and their transition to young adulthood.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , February 2018 , pp. 165 - 177
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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Footnotes

This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by Grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due to Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth). No direct support was received from Grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis.

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