Cognition in Context: Pathways and Compound Risk in a Sample of US Non-Hispanic Whites

The population of individuals with cognitive impairment and dementia is growing rapidly, necessitating etiological investigation. It is clear that individual differences in cognition later in life have both genetic and multi-level environmental correlates. Despite significant recent progress in cellular and molecular research, the exact mechanisms linking genes, brains, and cognition remain elusive. In relation to cognition, it is unlikely that genetic and environmental risk factors function in a vacuum, but rather interact and cluster together. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether aspects of individual socioeconomic status (SES) explain the cognitive genotype-phenotype association, and whether neighborhood SES modifies the effects of genes and individual SES on cognitive ability. Using data from non-Hispanic White participants in the 2016 wave of the Health and Retirement Study, a national sample of United States adults, we examined links between a polygenic score for general cognition and performance-based cognitive functioning. In a series of weighted linear regressions and formal tests of mediation, we observed a significant genotype-phenotype association that was partially attenuated after including individual education to the baseline model, although little reductions were observed for household wealth or census tract-level percent poverty. These findings suggest that genetic risk for poor cognition is partially explained by education, and this pathway is not modified by poverty-level of the neighborhood

Exploring Rural-Urban Differences in Polygenic Associations for Health among Older Adults in the United States

A complex combination of genes and environment influence health and, as a result, both genes and environment can play a role in shaping health disparities. We consider distinctions in these influences across rural and urban settings, expanding upon work that shows lower genetic associations in rural compared to urban places by studying an older age group and examining more than the typical outcomes of alcohol/substance abuse. Using a sample of 14,994 adults from the 1992 through 2016 waves of the Health andRetirement Study, our results suggest genetic associations for BMI and heart conditions are significantly lower in rural compared to urban settings. We do not find evidence in support of this association for depression and smoking. In sum, the results suggest the gene-environment interaction may play a role in the well-documented disparities across rural and urban places within the United States, further highlighting the importance of the social, economic, and built environments for individual health

The Sequencing of a College Degree during the Transition to Adulthood: Implications for Obesity

In this study we consider the health implications of the sequencing of a college degree vis-à-vis familial roles during the transition to adulthood. We hypothesize that people who earned a college degree before assuming familial roles will have better health than people who earned a college degree afterwards. To test this hypothesis, we focus on obesity and use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Results show that marriage before completion of college was associated with a 50% higher probability of becoming obese when compared with marriage after completion of college. Parenthood before college completion was associated with a greater-than two-fold increase in the probability of becoming obese when compared to parenthood afterwards for Black men. These findings suggest that the well-established association of education with health depends on its place in a sequence of roles

Using smart energy meter data to design better policy: Prepayment meter customers, fuel poverty and policy targeting in Great Britain

During winter 2022–23, residential energy prices were exceptionally high in Europe. Governments provided unprecedented energy support payments, but millions of households still suffered from inadequate access to energy. This paper uses gas and electricity smart meter data from 2019 to 20 to 2022–23 for 11,500 prepayment meter (PPM) customers in Great Britain to characterise energy use over time, by dwelling and household characteristics, examine the effects of high prices and cold weather, evaluate current policy and propose improvements. Households with PPMs are a group where fuel poverty is highly concentrated. This sample use less energy than the general population and 63 % self-disconnected at least once a year, with an annual average 28 h of disconnection. Using smart meter data has enabled identification of groups in extreme need: 7 % of households use scarcely any energy, and no gas, for heating; 4 % self-disconnect for at least 240 h per year. More homes self-disconnected from gas during cold periods than at other times, despite the greater need for heating. The paper proposes replacing the current ‘Cold Weather Payment’ policy that has proven ineffective with advance, daily payments directly to energy accounts that are triggered by forecasts of minimum temperatures of −4 °C. High prices in 2022–23 had a very significant effect: annual gas use per household fell by 20 %, while electricity use fell by 3 %, compared with 2019–20. A new Energy Cost Support Scheme is proposed to provide financial support for households in fuel poverty, worth about £1000 per household. For the longer term, smart meter data could enable better targeting of support for vulnerable households and the fuel poor

Finding the fuel poor and framing better policy

The UK Government needs to make urgent decisions about whether and how to support more vulnerable energy users in the winter of 2023-24. The additional support provided in 2022-23 has been withdrawn, but prices continue to be very high, and in the absence of help, millions of households will struggle without adequate energy for heating, hot water, cooking and other vital services. This report uses data from smart-enabled prepayment meter customers to explore how the Government can best target support to those in greatest need, i.e. those in fuel poverty, and to describe the minimum level of support needed to prevent serious suffering this coming winter. This report is based on household energy consumption and other data for 11,519 households with dual-fuel gas and electricity supplies, provided by the energy company Utilita. Using data from four years, 2019-20 to 2022-23, analysis has looked at how energy use, rates and duration of self-disconnection have varied with external temperature, price, dwelling and household characteristics, and how policies and targeted payments affected energy use and self-disconnection

The Association Between the MAOA 2R Genotype and Delinquency Over Time Among Men: The Interactive Role of Parental Closeness and Parental Incarceration

Using a panel of 6,001 males from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent and Adult Health, we examine potential moderation by paternal incarceration and parent-child closeness altering the relationship between the rare 2R MAOA genotype and delinquency. By jointly examining moderation patterns for both the mother and father with the transmission of the MAOA genotype from mother to son, we are able to make inferences about the specific genetic model that best explains these outcomes. In line with prior research, we find a direct relationship between the MAOA 2R genotype and delinquency, independent of parental incarceration and closeness. Examining moderation patterns, we find that delinquency risk for the 2R allele is buffered for males close to their biological or social father, but not their biological mother. We conclude that the 2R delinquency association is not due to passive gene-environment correlation but is best characterized as a social control gene-environment interaction

Does Crime Trigger Genetic Risk for Type 2 Diabetes in Young Adults? A G x E Interaction Study Using National Data

Background Living in neighborhoods perceived as disordered exacerbates genetic risk for type 2 diabetes (T2D) among older adults. It is unknown whether this gene-neighborhood interaction extends to younger adults. The present study aims to investigate whether crime, an objectively measured indicator of neighborhood disorder, triggers genetic risk for T2D among younger adults, and whether this hypothesized triggering occurs through exposure to obesity. Methods Data were from the Wave I (2008) National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. A standardized T2D polygenic score was created using 2014 GWAS meta-analysis results. Weighted mediation analyses using generalized structural equation models were conducted in a final sample of 7606 adults (age range: 25–34) to test the overall association of T2D polygenic scores with T2D, and the mediating path through obesity exposure in low, moderate, and high county crime-rate groups. Age, sex, ancestry, educational degree, household income, five genetic principal components, and county-level concentrated advantage and population density were adjusted. Results The overall association between T2D polygenic score and T2D was not significant in low-crime areas (p = 0.453), marginally significant in moderate-crime areas (p = 0.064), and statistically significant in high-crime areas (p = 0.007). The mediating path through obesity was not significant in low or moderate crime areas (ps = 0.560 and 0.261, respectively), but was statistically significant in high-crime areas (p = 0.023). The indirect path through obesity accounted for 12% of the overall association in high-crime area. Conclusion A gene-crime interaction in T2D was observed among younger adults, and this association was partially explained by exposure to obesity

The social genome of friends and schoolmates in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health

Our study reported significant findings of a “social genome” that can be quantified and studied to understand human health and behavior. In a national sample of more than 5,000 American adolescents, we found evidence of social forces that act to make friends and schoolmates more genetically similar to one another compared with random pairs of unrelated individuals. This subtle genetic similarity was observed across the entire genome and at sets of genomic locations linked with specific traits—educational attainment and body mass index—a phenomenon we term “social–genetic correlation.” We also find evidence of a “social–genetic effect” such that the genetics of a person’s friends and schoolmates influenced their own education, even after accounting for the person’s own genetics

Genetic Sensitivity to Peer Behaviors: 5HTTLPR, Smoking, and Alcohol Consumption

We investigate whether the serotonin transporter-linked polymorphic region (5HTTLPR), a gene associated with environmental sensitivity, moderates the association between smoking and drinking patterns at adolescents' schools and their corresponding risk for smoking and drinking themselves. Drawing on the school-based design of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health in conjunction with molecular genetic data for roughly 15,000 respondents (including over 2,000 sibling pairs), we show that adolescents smoke more cigarettes and consume more alcohol when attending schools with elevated rates of tobacco and alcohol use. More important, an individual's susceptibility to school-level patterns of smoking or drinking is conditional on the number of short alleles he or she has in 5HTTLPR. Overall, the findings demonstrate the utility of the differential susceptibility framework for medical sociology by suggesting that health behaviors reflect interactions between genetic factors and the prevalence of these behaviors in a person's context

Association of Adolescent Sport Participation With Cognition and Depressive Symptoms in Early Adulthood

Background: Recent studies have associated sport-related concussion with depression and impaired cognitive ability later in life in former professional football players. However, population studies with two 1950s-era cohorts did not find an association between high school football participation and impaired cognition or depressive symptoms in late adulthood.Purpose/Hypothesis: This study assessed whether actual/intended participation in contact sports during adolescence had an adverse effect on participants&rsquo; cognition or depressive symptoms in early adulthood. We hypothesized that there would not be an association.Study Design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 2.Methods: This study used a subsample (n = 10,951) from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), a nationally (United States) representative prospective cohort study following participants through 4 waves of data collection from 1994 through 2008. Participants were categorized as actual/intended participation in no sports, noncontact sports only, and contact sports. We constructed 6 multivariate and logistic regression models predicting word recall, number recall, modified Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, depression diagnosis, suicide ideation, and suicide attempts at wave IV as a function of sport participation during wave I. Sport participation was treated as a factor with the referent category noncontact sports. This analysis was repeated on a males-only sample (n = 5008). In the males-only analysis, participants were classified as actual/intended participation in no sports, noncontact sports, contact sports other than American football, and American football. The referent category remained noncontact sports.Results: Intention to participate in contact sports was not significantly associated with any of the outcomes in the full-sample analysis. Intention to participate in football was significantly associated with a reduced odds of depression diagnosis in adulthood (odds ratio, 0.70; P = .02) when compared with noncontact sports participation in the males-only sample. Football was not significantly associated with impaired cognitive ability, increased depressive symptoms, or increased suicide ideation.Conclusion: Actual/intended participation in contact sports during adolescence did not adversely affect Add Health participants&rsquo; cognition or depressive symptoms in young adulthood.</p