Given that < 5% of American have ideal cardiovascular health, efforts to improve cardiovascular health need to focus on aspects of the environment that promote and sustain cardiovascular health. However, given the difficulty and expense of obtaining longitudinal neighborhood measures, especially in early childhood and adolescent periods, along with rich data on markers of cardiovascular risk, few studies have characterized: 1) to what extent aspects of neighborhood context in residential and school-based settings during adolescence affect CVH and racial/ethnic differences in CVH among adolescent girls as they transition into adulthood, 2) at which developmental time period (childhood, adolescence, or adulthood) neighborhood environments have the most impact on CVH of women, and 3) the extent to which associations are mediated by stress- related processes. Moreover, the potential intergenerational influence of neighborhood environments on the cardiovascular health of the next generation has not yet been well characterized. Thus, the overarching goal of the proposed population-based study is to examine associations between neighborhood and school environments at critical developmental stages (early childhood, adolescence, adulthood) in relation to ideal cardiovascular health of adolescent girls as they transition to adulthood, and to determine whether these environments are associated with the cardiovascular health of their offspring. To achieve this goal, this study will leverage existing data from the National Growth and Health Study, a longitudinal study of black and white girls from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds that have been followed from age 9-10 to age 19-20. In a recently funded follow-up study, ?Race, stress, and dysregulated eating: Maternal to child transmission of obesity?, women from the Richmond, CA site, and a subset of their children have, been re-enrolled for a follow-up assessment at ages 38-40. We have the unique opportunity to create a longitudinal database of indicators of neighborhood environments via study questionnaire and data linkages to historical geo- spatially referenced administrative data sources to create 40 years of contextual data. The proposed research will help improve understanding of how neighborhood environments may promote and sustain cardiovascular health of women and their children and to inform context-specific interventions targets that may help improve primordial prevention efforts for cardiovascular disease.
The overall goal of this research project to examine neighborhood environments over the life course (early childhood, adolescence, and adulthood), in relation to the cardiovascular health of women and the intergenerational influence of these environments on the cardiovascular health of their offspring. Findings from our study may improve primordial prevention efforts for cardiovascular disease by identifying which aspects of neighborhood environments and at which critical periods of development these environments impact the cardiovascular health of women and their children.
