Dataset Information

Neighborhood disadvantage, parent-adolescent relationship quality, and type 1 diabetes in late adolescents transitioning to early emerging adulthood.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

We examined whether neighborhood disadvantage predicted subsequent levels, and longitudinal trajectories, of type 1 diabetes (T1D) outcomes among late adolescents transitioning into early emerging adulthood. We also examined whether such associations occur indirectly through parent-adolescent relationship quality.

Research design & methods

Seniors in high school with T1D (N = 236; mean age 17.76 ± 0.39 years; 61% female; 73.7% non-Latino White) completed selfreport measures of relationship quality with mothers and fathers, and adherence to their diabetes regimen; glycemic control was measured using HbA1c assay kits. Both T1D outcomes (i.e. adherence, HbA1c) were assessed annually across three time points (two years). Census tract indicators of neighborhood disadvantage (e.g., % unemployed) were culled from participant addresses at baseline linked to American Community Survey data. Structural Equation Modeling was used to estimate direct and indirect links between neighborhood disadvantage, relationship quality, and both subsequent levels (i.e., intercepts centered at Time 2), and trajectories of T1D outcomes (i.e., slopes across three time points).

Results

All models showed excellent fit to the data. Greater neighborhood disadvantage associated with lower relationship quality with both parents. Lower relationship quality with fathers (but not with mothers) measured at Time 1 predicted poorer levels of adherence and HbA1c at Time 2, and formed an indirect path linking neighborhood disadvantage to each Time 2 outcome. Neighborhood disadvantage and parent-adolescent relationship quality during high school did not predict longitudinal trajectories of T1D outcomes across all three time points.

Conclusions

Parent-adolescent relationship quality (especially with fathers) remains important for T1D outcomes among late adolescents on the cusp of emerging adulthood, but may be at risk among those living within a socioeconomically-disadvantaged neighborhood.

SUBMITTER: Mello D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7268169 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:ImportanceDNA methylation has been proposed as an epigenetic mechanism by which the childhood neighborhood environment may have implications for the genome that compromise adult health.ObjectiveTo ascertain whether childhood neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with differences in DNA methylation by age 18 years.Design, setting, and participantsThis longitudinal cohort study analyzed data from the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, a nationally representative birth cohort of children born between 1994 and 1995 in England and Wales and followed up from age 5 to 18 years. Data analysis was performed from March 15, 2019, to June 30, 2019.ExposuresHigh-resolution neighborhood data (indexing deprivation, dilapidation, disconnection, and dangerousness) collected across childhood.Main outcomes and measuresDNA methylation in whole blood was drawn at age 18 years. Associations between neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage and methylation were tested using 3 prespecified approaches: (1) testing probes annotated to candidate genes involved in biological responses to growing up in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods and investigated in previous epigenetic research (stress reactivity-related and inflammation-related genes), (2) polyepigenetic scores indexing differential methylation in phenotypes associated with growing up in disadvantaged neighborhoods (obesity, inflammation, and smoking), and (3) a theory-free epigenome-wide association study.ResultsA total of 1619 participants (806 female individuals [50%]) had complete neighborhood and DNA methylation data. Children raised in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods exhibited differential DNA methylation in genes involved in inflammation (β = 0.12; 95% CI, 0.06-0.19; P < .001) and smoking (β = 0.18; 95% CI, 0.11-0.25; P < .001) but not obesity (β = 0.05; 95% CI, -0.01 to 0.11; P = .12). An epigenome-wide association study identified multiple CpG sites at an arraywide significance level of P < 1.16 × 10-7 in genes involved in the metabolism of hydrocarbons. Associations between neighborhood disadvantage and methylation were small but robust to family-level socioeconomic factors and to individual-level tobacco smoking.Conclusions and relevanceChildren raised in more socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods appeared to enter young adulthood epigenetically distinct from their less disadvantaged peers. This finding suggests that epigenetic regulation may be a mechanism by which the childhood neighborhood environment alters adult health.