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Klopack ET. Chronic Stress and Latent Virus Reactivation: Effects on Immune Aging, Chronic Disease Morbidity, and Mortality. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2023; 78:1707-1716. [PMID: 37294880 PMCID: PMC10561893 DOI: 10.1093/geronb/gbad087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2022] [Indexed: 06/11/2023] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Social stress has been shown to affect immune functioning. Past research has found that chronic social stress and latent viral infections accelerate immune aging, leading to chronic disease morbidity and mortality. Chronic stress may also reactivate latent viral infections, like cytomegalovirus (CMV), accelerating the aging of the immune system. METHOD Utilizing panel survey data from 8,995 U.S. adults aged 56 or older from the Health and Retirement Study, this study investigates whether chronic stress interacts with CMV positivity to drive aging of the immune system, multimorbidity, and mortality. RESULTS Results of moderated mediation analysis indicate that the effect of CMV positivity on morbidity and mortality as mediated by immune aging indicators is amplified by chronic stress. DISCUSSION These findings suggest that immune aging is a biological pathway underlying the stress process and help explain past findings in the literature on stress and health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric T Klopack
- Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
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Hernández-Pacheco R, Steiner UK, Rosati AG, Tuljapurkar S. Advancing methods for the biodemography of aging within social contexts. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2023; 153:105400. [PMID: 37739326 PMCID: PMC10591901 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105400] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2022] [Revised: 08/10/2023] [Accepted: 09/18/2023] [Indexed: 09/24/2023]
Abstract
Several social dimensions including social integration, status, early-life adversity, and their interactions across the life course can predict health, reproduction, and mortality in humans. Accordingly, the social environment plays a fundamental role in the emergence of phenotypes driving the evolution of aging. Recent work placing human social gradients on a biological continuum with other species provides a useful evolutionary context for aging questions, but there is still a need for a unified evolutionary framework linking health and aging within social contexts. Here, we summarize current challenges to understand the role of the social environment in human life courses. Next, we review recent advances in comparative biodemography and propose a biodemographic perspective to address socially driven health phenotype distributions and their evolutionary consequences using a nonhuman primate population. This new comparative approach uses evolutionary demography to address the joint dynamics of populations, social dimensions, phenotypes, and life history parameters. The long-term goal is to advance our understanding of the link between individual social environments, population-level outcomes, and the evolution of aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Raisa Hernández-Pacheco
- Department of Biological Sciences, California State University, Long Beach, 1250 N Bellflower Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90840-0004, USA.
| | - Ulrich K Steiner
- Freie Universität Berlin, Biological Institute, Königin-Luise Str. 1-3, 14195 Berlin, Germany
| | - Alexandra G Rosati
- Departments of Psychology and Anthropology, University of Michigan, 530 Church St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
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Yang X, Zhang C. Children’s Health and Typology of Family Integration and Regulation: A Functionalist Analysis. CHILDREN 2023; 10:children10030494. [PMID: 36980053 PMCID: PMC10047299 DOI: 10.3390/children10030494] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2022] [Revised: 02/22/2023] [Accepted: 02/25/2023] [Indexed: 03/06/2023]
Abstract
Rationale: Children’s health is conventionally studied as an ultimate consequence resulting from various social and biological processes that jointly channel the risk factors and pathogens toward an individual health outcome. What is currently neglected is the rich tradition of a functionalist analysis of children’s health as a necessary function in the family institution. Children’s health may be associated with how children are integrated into the family’s core functioning and how parents regulate children’s behaviors. Methods: The current study used a cross-sectional sample of 891 parents from 2018 southern Jiangsu and surveyed information about children’s health and family activities. Employing a latent class analysis, we established four types of families based on children’s integration and parental regulation: loose, free, pressed, and concerted. Results: The regression results showed that a child’s health is associated with the concerted family type (OR = 3.6, p < 0.05), indicating the necessary functionality of health in heavily regulated and mobilized families. Conclusion: This study broadens the perspective on children’s health by ushering back functionalism and placing health in its social implications.
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Colón-López A, García C. 20th Century Puerto Rico and Later-Life Health: The Association Between Multigenerational Education and Chronic Conditions in Island-Dwelling Older Adults. J Aging Health 2023; 35:3-22. [PMID: 35536114 PMCID: PMC10081163 DOI: 10.1177/08982643221097532] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Previous research on the association between education and older adult health in the U.S. has not included Puerto Rico. We investigated the effects of multigenerational educational attainment and chronic conditions among older Puerto Ricans residing on the archipelago's main island. METHODS Data were from the longitudinal Puerto Rican Elderly Health Conditions Project. Generalized Poisson regression models were used to examine if multigenerational educational attainment was associated with chronic disease. RESULTS Findings show that parental educational attainment was associated with fewer chronic conditions among females at baseline but not at follow-up, suggesting that the effects of parental education on health over time are less pronounced. For males, educational attainment across the three generations was not significantly associated with chronic disease at baseline or follow-up. DISCUSSION Multigenerational education is an important determinant of older adult health that continues to be relevant in Puerto Rico and the Latin American and Hispanic-Caribbean region.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alejandra Colón-López
- Department of Sociology, 9968University of Alabama - Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
| | - Catherine García
- Department of Human Development and Family Science, Aging Studies Institute, Center for Aging and Policy Studies, Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion, 2029Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA
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Brady D, Guerra C, Kohler U, Link B. The Long Arm of Prospective Childhood Income for Mature Adult Health in the United States. JOURNAL OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR 2022; 63:543-559. [PMID: 35253530 PMCID: PMC10510903 DOI: 10.1177/00221465221081094] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Pioneering scholarship links retrospective childhood conditions to mature adult health. We distinctively provide critical evidence with prospective state-of-the-art measures of parent income observed multiple times during childhood in the 1970s to 1990s. Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we analyze six health outcomes (self-rated health, heart attack, stroke, life-threatening chronic conditions, non-life-threatening chronic conditions, and psychological distress) among 40- to 65-year-olds. Parent relative income rank has statistically and substantively significant relationships with five of six outcomes. The relationships with heart attack, stroke, and life-threatening chronic conditions are particularly strong. Parent income rank performs slightly better than alternative prospective and retrospective measures. At the same time, we provide novel validation on which retrospective measures (i.e., father's education) perform almost as well as prospective measures. Furthermore, we inform several perennial debates about how relative versus absolute income and other measures of socioeconomic status and social class influence health.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Brady
- University of California, Riverside, CA, USA
- WZB Berlin Social Science Center
| | | | - Ulrich Kohler
- University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany
| | - Bruce Link
- University of California, Riverside, CA, USA
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Kemp BR, Ferraro KF, Morton PM, Thomas PA, Mustillo SA, Crimmins EM. Do Early-Life Social, Behavioral, and Health Exposures Increase Later-Life Arthritis Incidence? Res Aging 2022; 44:479-493. [PMID: 34664538 PMCID: PMC9016101 DOI: 10.1177/01640275211044979] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/16/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES This study investigates direct and indirect influences of childhood social, behavioral, and health exposures on later-life osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis development. METHODS Drawing from cumulative inequality theory and six waves of the Health and Retirement Study (2004-2014), we estimate structural equation modeling-based discrete-time survival analysis of the association between six childhood exposure domains and both osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis incidence for men (n = 2720) and women (n = 2974). Using the delta method to test for mediation, we examine indirect effects via selected health-related risks and resources. RESULTS Risky adolescent behavior is associated with rheumatoid arthritis incidence for women (h.O.R. = 1.883, 95% C.I. [1.016, 3.490]), whereas several types of childhood exposures are associated with later-life osteoarthritis development for both men and women. Experiencing two or more childhood socioeconomic disadvantages is indirectly associated with osteoarthritis (men: coef. = 0.024, 95% C.I. [0.003, 0.045]; women: coef. = 0.111, 95% C.I. [0.071, 0.150]) and rheumatoid arthritis (men: coef. = 0.037, 95% C.I. [0.000, 0.074]; women: coef. = 0.097, 95% C.I. [0.035, 0.159]) development through adult body mass index. DISCUSSION Findings highlight the importance of childhood contexts in understanding the development of later-life osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Blakelee R. Kemp
- Department of Sociology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, USA
| | - Kenneth F. Ferraro
- Center on Aging and the Life Course, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
- Department of Sociology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
| | - Patricia M. Morton
- Department of Sociology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA
- Department of Public Health, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA
| | - Patricia A. Thomas
- Center on Aging and the Life Course, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
- Department of Sociology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
| | - Sarah A. Mustillo
- Department of Sociology, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN, USA
| | - Eileen M. Crimmins
- Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
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Morton PM. Childhood Disadvantage and Adult Functional Status: Do Early-Life Exposures Jeopardize Healthy Aging? J Aging Health 2022; 34:794-806. [PMID: 34983200 DOI: 10.1177/08982643211064723] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES To examine whether childhood disadvantage is associated with later-life functional status and identify mediating factors. METHODS Unique and additive effects of five childhood domains on functional status were assessed at baseline (2006) and over time (2006-2016) in a sample of 13,894 adults from the Health and Retirement Study (>50 years). Adult health behaviors and socioeconomic status (SES) were tested as mediators. RESULTS Respondents exposed to multiple childhood disadvantages (OR = .694) as well as low childhood SES (OR = .615), chronic diseases (OR = .694), impairments (OR = .599), and risky adolescent behaviors (OR = .608) were less likely to be free of functional disability by baseline. Over time, these unique and additive effects of childhood disadvantage increased the hazard odds of eventually developing functional disability (e.g., additive effect: hOR = 1.261). Adult health behaviors and SES mediated some of these effects. DISCUSSION Given the enduring effects of childhood disadvantage, policies to promote healthy aging should reduce exposure to childhood disadvantage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patricia M Morton
- Department of Sociology, 2954Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.,Department of Public Health, 2954Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA
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Berg MT, Rogers EM, Lei MK, Simons RL. Losing Years Doing Time: Incarceration Exposure and Accelerated Biological Aging among African American Adults. JOURNAL OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR 2021; 62:460-476. [PMID: 34698583 DOI: 10.1177/00221465211052568] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Research suggests that incarceration exposure increases the prevalence of morbidity and premature mortality. This work is only beginning to examine whether the stressors of the incarceration experience become biologically embedded in ways that affect physiological deterioration. Using data from a longitudinal sample of 410 African American adults in the Family and Community Health Study and an epigenetic index of aging, this study tests the extent to which incarceration accelerates epigenetic aging and whether experiences with violence moderate this association. Results from models that adjust for selection effects suggest that incarceration exposure predicted accelerated aging, leaving formerly incarcerated African American individuals biologically older than their calendar age. Direct experiences with violence also exacerbated the effects of incarceration. These findings suggest that incarceration possibly triggers a stress response that affects a biological signature of physiological deterioration.
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Mustillo SA, Li M, Morton P, Ferraro KF. Early Origins of Body Mass in Later Life: Examining Childhood Risks and Adult Pathways. JOURNAL OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR 2021; 62:152-169. [PMID: 33856951 PMCID: PMC8187323 DOI: 10.1177/00221465211005419] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Prior research reveals that negative early-life experiences play a major role in the development of obesity in later life, but few studies identify mechanisms that alter the lifetime risk of obesity. This study examines the influence of negative childhood experiences on body mass index (BMI) and obesity (BMI ≥30) during older adulthood and the psychosocial and behavioral pathways involved. Using a nationally representative sample, we examine the influence of cumulative misfortune as well as five separate domains of misfortune on BMI and obesity. Results show that four of the five domains are associated with BMI and obesity either directly, indirectly, or both. The influence of cumulative misfortune on the outcomes is mediated by three adult factors: socioeconomic status, depressive symptoms, and physical activity. The mediators identified here provide targets for intervention among older adults to help offset the health risks of excess BMI attributable of early-life exposure to misfortune.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Miao Li
- Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA
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