Childhood adversity is linked to adult health among African Americans via adolescent weight gain and effects are genetically moderated.

ABSTRACT: Identifying the mechanisms linking early experiences, genetic risk factors, and their interaction with later health consequences is central to the development of preventive interventions and identifying potential boundary conditions for their efficacy. In the current investigation of 412 African American adolescents followed across a 20-year period, we examined change in body mass index (BMI) across adolescence as one possible mechanism linking childhood adversity and adult health. We found associations of childhood adversity with objective indicators of young adult health, including a cardiometabolic risk index, a methylomic aging index, and a count of chronic health conditions. Childhood adversities were associated with objective indicators indirectly through their association with gains

SUBMITTER: Beach SRH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7644595 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature