Social Stress, Epigenetics and Cardiometabolic Health Among Youth

Project Narrative Social and economic stressors are increasingly recognized as important factors that shape the development of cardiovascular disease particularly among Latinos, who experience a disproportionate burden of these factors across the life course. However, the pathways through which social and economic stressors affect the biological pathways related to health disparities are not fully understood, particularly at the cellular level, and little research to date has examined how these factors impact cardiovascular markers early in the life course. We propose to address these gaps by examining how social and economic stressors experienced in childhood impact DNA methylation (e.g. DNA methylation age, genome-wide methylation) and mtDNA damage, among a diverse sample of Latino youth living in the US, as well as how these factors may impact their cardiometabolic health.