Abstract
Psychosocial stressors can become embodied to alter biology throughout the life course in ways that may have lasting health consequences. Immigrants are particularly vulnerable to high burdens of stress, which have heightened in the current sociopolitical climate. This study is an investigation of how immigration-related stress (IRS) may impact the cardiometabolic risk and epigenetic markers of Latinx immigrant mothers and children in Nashville, TN. We compared stress and resilience factors reported by Latina immigrant mothers and their children (aged 5–13) from two time points spanning the 2016 U.S. presidential election (June 2015–June 2016 baseline, n = 81; March–September 2018 follow-up, n = 39) with cardiometabolic risk markers (BMI, waist circumference, and blood pressure). We also analyzed these factors in relation to DNA methylation in saliva of stress-related candidate genes (SLC6A4 and FKBP5), generated via bisulfite pyrosequencing (complete case n's range from 67–72 baseline and 29–31 follow-up) (n's range from 80 baseline to 36 follow-up). We found various associations with cardiometabolic risk, such as higher social support and greater acculturation were associated with lower BMI in mothers; discrimination and school stress associated with greater waist circumferences in children. Very few exposures associated with FKBP5, but various stressors associated with methylation at many sites in SLC6A4, including immigrant-related stress in both mothers and children, and fear of parent deportation in children. Additionally, in the mothers, total maternal stress, health stress, and subjective social status associated with methylation at multiple sites of SLC6A4. Acculturation associated with methylation in mothers in both genes, though directions of effect varied over time. We also find DNA methylation at SLC6A4 associates with measures of adiposity and blood pressure, suggesting that methylation may be on the pathway linking stress with cardiometabolic risk. More research is needed to determine the role of these epigenetic differences in contributing to embodiment of stress across generations.
Highlights
The accumulation of stress over time can contribute to biological embodiment across the life course
We found stress levels in mothers were high across both time points, with slight decreases in total stress and immigrant stress over time, while resilience factors such as optimism and social support decreased over time
Our findings demonstrate an epigenetic pathway through which early adversity and ongoing stressful life events associate with DNA methylation within important regulatory regions of two well-characterized stress-related genes
Summary
The accumulation of stress over time can contribute to biological embodiment across the life course. Latinx Americans, regardless of immigration status, often experience high rates of chronic stress and are at risk for high rates of cardiometabolic disease later in life, including obesity and hypertension. Latinx adults have 1.65 times the rate of diabetes [1, 2] and 1.2 times the rate of overweight and obesity, relative to non-Latinx whites [3] These health disparities often emerge early in life: overall Latinx children aged 2–19 have 1.6 times the rate of obesity as white children [1], and the youngest group of Latinx children aged 2–5 years have nearly quadruple the rates of obesity as white children in the US [4, 5]. Latinx Americans represent an important demographic for the health of the future of the US population
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