Context Of Life Course Research Articles

Appraising the life-course impact of Epstein-Barr virus exposure and its genetic signature on periodontitis.

Periodontitis arises from a multifaceted interplay of environmental variables and genetic susceptibility, where microbial infection plays an indispensable part. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) exposure has long been considered associated with periodontitis activity; however, the causal relationship and genetic connection between them remain unknown. Within a life-course context, our study employed comprehensive Mendelian randomization (MR) methods, including univariable, multivariable, Bayesian model averaging, and reverse MR, to investigate the causal association between EBV exposure and periodontitis. Additionally, linkage disequilibrium score regression and colocalization analysis were utilized to assess the cross-trait genetic correlations, followed by transcriptome-wide association and enrichment analysis to discern the genetic-phenotypic biological profiles. Heightened levels of EBV antibodies, particularly early antigen diffuses (which serve as indicators of early infection or reactivation), are associated with an increased risk of periodontitis (odds ratio [OR]: 1.27 [1.09-1.47],p=6.05×10-3) and demonstrate a significant genetic correlation (p=4.11×10-3). This pathogenesis may involve the high-confidence causal gene RNASEK located in 17p13.1. Genetically predicted early-life anti-EBV immunoglobulin G (IgG) levels are correlated to a reduced periodontitis risk (OR: 0.89 [0.82-0.97],p=1.76×10-3). The present study highlights the impact of life-course EBV exposure and its genetic hallmark on periodontitis, providing novel perspectives into the underlying pathogenesis and management strategies for EBV-related periodontitis. These findings underscore diverse clinical and public health implications, encompassing antiviral therapies, viral vaccination strategies, and tailored interventions for individualized periodontitis management. Further research is required to validate and expand upon our findings. Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease driven by interactions between microbial pathogens and the host immune system. While bacteria have traditionally been the focus of research, recent studies highlight the significance of virus-bacteria interactions, particularly the role of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-a herpesvirus infecting over 90% of the global population-in the development of periodontitis. However, the underlying causal and genetic mechanisms remain unclear. Our study employed genome-wide multi-omics approaches to investigate the link between EBV exposure and periodontitis. We found that recent EBV infection or reactivation increases the risk of periodontitis, whereas early-life exposure, possibly enabling immune resistance, may reduce it. Essential genes were identified as potential mediators, including CRTC3-AS1, HLA-DQA1, and RNASEK. These findings provide novel insights into the EBV-periodontitis connection. For example, viral testing and control could benefit patients unresponsive to standard bacterial treatments, and early viral exposure via vaccination might reduce the risk of periodontitis. Further clinical studies are required to elucidate these underlying mechanisms and the contribution of virus-bacteria interactions.

Youth Debt in a Life-Course Context: Young Peopleʼs Ways into and out of Debt in Norway

Youth Debt in a Life-Course Context: Young Peopleʼs Ways into and out of Debt in Norway

Iljin in the Making

Abstract This study seeks to locate “the points of impact of social forces” regarding juvenile bullying-and-violence in South Korea. Based on the multi-informant case-file material of 20 perpetrators of school violence detained at a Juvenile Detention Centre between 2011 and 2013, this is the first qualitative study to place bullying-and-violence in South Korea within its life-course context. This novel approach is achieved by applying classic findings from developmental criminology conducted in Western societies to the South Korean case-file material. Additionally, original emoticon-based “life-course turning points diagrams” are presented as potentially offering an alternative means of conceptualising and analysing life-course trajectories. Against a binary conceptualisation of school violence, this study reveals a cyclical connection between earlier victimisation (in the home) and later offending (at school). In contrast to school-and-security-centric measures advocated and implemented by the government at the time, this study advocates more family management-centric measures.

The Demography of Grandparenthood: An International Profile

This comparative study addressed three open questions about the demography of grandparenthood in contemporary societies: First, at what age do people become grandparents? Second, how is grandparenthood sequenced with other transitions in later life? Third, how long is the grandparent life stage? To answer these questions, we analyzed retrospective data from the United States (NSFH) and 24 European countries (GGS, ESS, DEAS). Using survival methods, we estimated (1) age at grandparenthood; (2) demographic overlap with parenting, worker, and filial roles; and (3) expected length of the grandparent life stage. Three central findings emerged from the analysis: First, the timing of grandparenthood varies strongly across countries. Cross-national differences in the median age at grandparenthood are larger than in age at parenthood, age at retirement, and life expectancy. Compared to the United States (49 years among women, 52 years among men), grandparenthood in Eastern Europe occurs up to three years earlier in life; in Western Europe, up to eight years later. Second, cross-national variation in the life-course context of grandparenthood is less pronounced. In all countries, grand-parenthood overlaps rarely with active parenting but frequently with worker and filial roles. Third, the length of the grandparent life stage is more strongly influenced by the timing of fertility than by the timing of mortality. The longest years of life shared with grandchildren (35 years) are expected among grandmothers in East Germany and the United States; the shortest (21 years) among grandfathers in West Germany and Spain.

Establishing the Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology: Editorial Introduction

It is indeed our pleasure to provide a welcome to the inaugural issue of the Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology (JDLCC). We believe that a journal dedicated to this specific area of enquiry is timely if not somewhat overdue. The importance of employing an age-graded approach in criminology was recently well argued by Francis Cullen on receiving the American Society of Criminology’s Sutherland Award. Cullen, in his 2010 Sutherland address, encouraged a paradigm shift away from what he termed adolescent-limited criminology (ALC). He argued that the ALC framework, among other things, tended to ignore individual differences in offenders, tended to reject the epidemiology of crime in favour of making new theories and was based on cross-sectional self-report surveys of (mainly school based) adolescents. Cullen argued that to move forward, criminologists need to accept that developmental and lifecourse criminology is criminology. That it is not just another perspective that competes with traditional theories but rather that it should replace the dominant ALC framework. He argued that it is important to examine not only what happens during adolescence but also before and after adolescence. He was careful to note that he was not arguing that other theories do not matter but rather that existing theories should be age graded and viewed within a wider life course and developmental perspective. As co-editors of the JDLCC, we are proud to say that we wholeheartedly agree with Francis Cullen and this inclusive perspective is the approach that will be embraced for this new journal. It is worth acknowledging that despite the rapid rise in research on topics of central significance for understanding crime and criminal offending in a developmental and life-course context, the range of academic outlets with a specific focus in this area have been limited. Indeed, before the JDLCC was established, there was limited scope among existing journals to explore the key elements of developmental and lifecourse criminology in the detail necessary to expand knowledge in this area. It is our hope and indeed our intention to amplify this opportunity, through the JDLCC, for researchers interested in expanding this area of knowledge for the field. J Dev Life Course Criminology (2015) 1:1–3 DOI 10.1007/s40865-015-0006-1

Residential self-selection in travel behavior: Towards an integration into mobility biographies

The debate on residential self-selection (RSS) in the travel field seeks to answer the question of whether and to what extent spatial differences in traveling may be explained in spatial terms or to what extent, rather, they are explained by the unequal spatial distribution of people’s social and personal characteristics, particularly their neighborhood and travel preferences. Arguing primarily from a European—specifically, German— perspective, this paper makes a case for integrating the RSS-travel link into the mobility biographies approach that has emerged over the past decade. This approach addresses travel behavior as being embedded in other “spheres” of an individual’s life course, most notably the household and family biographies, the employment biography, and the residential biography. This paper argues that stability and change in travel behavior
 must be considered not only in concert with residential location choice, but also in the wider context of life course, in which residential choices themselves are embedded. Some unresolved issues in the RSS-travel debate that seem to be of key importance for the current debate are discussed, including various aspects of residential location choice, the role of preferences, and implications for spatial planning and transport planning. The benefits of taking a biographical perspective are also pointed out.

OP93 Common Epidemiological Errors: Over-Adjustment for Confounders and Mediators in Lifecourse Research

BackgroundEach year numerous studies evaluate longitudinal data within a lifecourse context with later-life health status (e.g. blood pressure) analysed with respect to repeated measures of early-life experiences (e.g. body mass)...

Changes in Older Europeans’ Health Across Two Waves of SHARE: Life-Course and Societal Determinants

Building on recent research investigating the role of life-course factors (including childhood conditions) and societal context in older Europeans health status, this study investigates the determinants of changes in elders’ health across two waves of the Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Controlling for individuals’ current living conditions at baseline, our analysis provides evidence for long-term associations between childhood conditions (SES, health, cognition) and health dynamics in older age. Moreover, our findings suggest that income inequality tends to increase elders’ risk of experiencing negative health changes (decreases their chance to recover from poor health, respectively). Our study underlines the importance of accounting for both life-course and societal determinants of later life health dynamics.

Unravelling fears of genetic discrimination: an exploratory study of Dutch HCM families in an era of genetic non-discrimination acts

Since the 1990s, many countries in Europe and the United States have enacted genetic non-discrimination legislation to prevent people from deferring genetic tests for fear that insurers or employers would discriminate against them based on that information. Although evidence for genetic discrimination exists, little is known about the origins and backgrounds of fears of discrimination and how it affects decisions for uptake of genetic testing. The aim of this article is to gain a better understanding of these fears and its possible impact on the uptake of testing by studying the case of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). In a qualitative study, we followed six Dutch extended families involved in genetic testing for HCM for three-and-a-half years. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 57 members of these families. Based on the narratives of the families, we suggest that fears of discrimination have to be situated in the broader social and life-course context of family and kin. We describe the processes in which families developed meaningful interpretations of genetic discrimination and how these interpretations affected family members' decisions to undergo genetic testing. Our findings show that fears of genetic discrimination do not so much stem from the opportunity of genetic testing but much more from earlier experiences of discrimination of diseased family members. These results help identify the possible limitations of genetic non-discrimination regulations and provide direction to clinicians supporting their clients as they confront issues of genetic testing and genetic discrimination.

Using a Lifecourse Context for Exploring Alcohol Change Attempts and Treatment Efforts Among Individuals With Alcohol Dependency

This article explores the importance of incorporating past attempts at changing one's drinking during current assessment and treatment processes, as well as when interpreting research outcomes. It is hypothesized that the current change efforts might be influenced by the change attempts that individuals have experienced over the lifecourse or “career” of their alcohol use disorders. In addition to formal treatment efforts, previous attempts might include other less easily recognized change strategies categorized as “informal” and “self-change” efforts. The authors describe initial development of an assessment strategy, the Lifecourse Alcohol Change Attempt interview protocol, and the results of a pilot test involving current and retrospective data collection. Results are indicative of both the feasibility and clinical utility of applying a lifecourse approach to self-change attempts and inclusion of self-perceptions regarding attempt outcomes, barriers, and facilitators of change. Implications for social work practice and recommendations for future research are offered.

Nutrition, Epigenetics, and Developmental Plasticity: Implications for Understanding Human Disease

There is considerable evidence for induction of differential risk of noncommunicable diseases in humans by variation in the quality of the early life environment. Studies in animal models show that induction and stability of induced changes in the phenotype of the offspring involve altered epigenetic regulation by DNA methylation and covalent modifications of histones. These findings indicate that such epigenetic changes are highly gene specific and function at the level of individual CpG dinucleotides. Interventions using supplementation with folic acid or methyl donors during pregnancy, or folic acid after weaning, alter the phenotype and epigenotype induced by maternal dietary constraint during gestation. This suggests a possible means for reducing risk of induced noncommunicable disease, although the design and conduct of such interventions may require caution. The purpose of this review is to discuss recent advances in understanding the mechanism that underlies the early life origins of disease and to place these studies in a broader life-course context.

De‐medicalizing anorexia: A new cultural brokering

Interviews with recovered anorexics in Tennessee, U. S. A., and Toronto, Canada, refute popular stereotypes and question anorexia's medicalization. Instead of adolescent girls literally dying for looks, putting anorexics in their life‐world and life‐course context shows youthful ascetics—male as well as female—obsessing over not beauty but self‐control, a cardinal contemporary virtue. What makes anorexia into a medical mystery as well as a personal tragedy is how the Cartesian dualism of modern thought splits mind from body. Here anthropology can act as a cultural broker, translating a biocultural disease for today's biology‐or‐culture thinking.

Special Issue on Health Inequalities Across the Life Course

T HE articles making up this special issue were originally presented at a conference, ‘‘Health Inequalities Across the Life Course,’’ held at Penn State University in June 2004. The conference was organized by Steve Zarit and Len Pearlin and supported by a grant from the National Institute on Aging (R13 AG22994). Each of the articles is guided by both a concern with the persistent and systemic inequalities in rates of morbidity and mortality in society and by the belief that many of the important antecedents of these inequalities can be traced back to circumstances present at earlier stages of the life course. It has been recognized for many decades that health and longevity vary with the social and economic statuses of people, yet the pathways and mechanisms by which these statuses come to be associated with health and well-being at mid-life and late-life are not thoroughly understood. A central goal of the conference was to bring together the theoretical, conceptual, and research perspectives that will advance our understanding of these matters and that will serve as a spur to future research. The outstanding expertise of the contributors to this issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences and the excellence of their scholarship provide a large step toward this goal. Although each article makes a separate and independent contribution, collectively they yield a comprehensive statement about the life-course context of health inequalities. The first paper, by Alwin and Wray, provides a useful historical and theoretical backdrop to research into health inequality. The following papers by House, Lantz, and Herd, Phelan and Link, and Almeida, Neupert, Banks, and Serido essentially lay out the epidemiological evidence for health disparities and probe their social, economic, and experiential causes. Intermingled with the social and economic influences on health are considerations of biological substrata. Rieker and Bird focus on these processes in exploring the paradox of gender differences, that is, why women live longer despite social disadvantage and higher rates of certain chronic illnesses. Biological issues are also taken up by Horwitz in his interesting examination of interpretive biases in weighing the influences on health of social and biological factors. Like gender, the meanings and definitions of race and ethnicity are socially and culturally constructed. Race and ethnicity are also statuses around which considerable health disparities have been revealed. Williams, Jackson, and Markides and Eschbach give us both updated epidemiological information about the rates of morbidity and mortality in relation to minority status, and thoughtful and penetrating analyses of the reasons for these relationships. It is evident that many of the life-course circumstances that eventually impact health arise within the institutional structures of the society. Research leaves no doubt about the importance of the economic and educational statuses in this regard, the subject matter at the center of the papers by Kahn and Fazio, Wray, Alwin, and McCammon, and Miech, Eaton, and Brennan. Together these articles provide a picture of how past and present economic hardships and educational attainments contribute to later health, especially as these factors interact with race and gender. Other life-course circumstances reflected in health and health disparities operate through conditions people encounter within the family context. The gendered division of family roles as well as the conflicts and disruptions of family relations are considered as conditions affecting the health and well-being of people in the articles by Moen and Chermack, Umberson and Williams, and Avison and Davies. A final set of articles looks at processes of cumulative adversity that are quintessentially an element of the life course and its effects on health. Cumulative adversity connotes the layering, intensification, or enlargement of the spheres of hardship that develop over a span of time. The articles by O’Rand and HamilLuker and by Wickrama and Conger demonstrate the impact of cumulative adversity on later health, while that by Hatch gives deserved attention to the conditions that protect people from adversity and its health effects. Finally, Linda George has ably and thoughtfully taken on the task of providing a wrap-up overview of the papers, identifying important themes and some promising directions for future research. It is with pleasure that we convey our thanks to the authors for their intellectually generous contributions to this special issue. We are confident that, for years to come, a large audience will benefit from their work. The Publications Committee of The Gerontological Society of America also has our gratitude for approving this project. Charles F. Longino, Jr., editor of the Journal, gave his support and encouragement of the project from beginning to end. Finally, our hats off to Jon (Joe) Hendricks, the editor of this special issue, and to the anonymous reviewers he assembled for their critiques of the papers and their excellent guidance.

Racial and ethnic disparities in birth outcomes: a life-course perspective.

In the United States, Black infants have significantly worse birth outcomes than do White infants. The cause of these persisting racial disparities remains unexplained. Most extant studies focus on differential exposures to protective and risk factors during pregnancy, such as current socioeconomic status, maternal risky behaviors, prenatal care, psychosocial stress, or perinatal infections. These risk factors during pregnancy, however, do not adequately account for the disparities. We conducted a literature review for longitudinal models of health disparities, and presented a synthesis of two leading models, using a life-course perspective. Traditional risk factors during pregnancy are then reexamined within their life-course context. We conclude with a discussion of the limitations and implications of the life-course perspective for future research, practice, and policy development. Two leading longitudinal models of health disparities were identified and discussed. The early programming model posits that exposures in early life could influence future reproductive potential. The cumulative pathways model conceptualizes decline in reproductive health resulting from cumulative wear and tear to the body's allostatic systems. We propose a synthesis of these two models, using the life-course perspective. Disparities in birth outcomes are the consequences of differential developmental trajectories set forth by early life experiences and cumulative allostatic load over the life course. Future research on racial disparities in birth outcomes needs to examine differential exposures to risk and protective factors not only during pregnancy, but over the life course of women. Eliminating disparities requires interventions and policy development that are more longitudinally and contextually integrated than currently prevail.

Is Retirement Good or Bad for Subjective Well-Being?

Retirement has been viewed either as a transition that is accompanied by psychological distress or as a time of continued, or even enhanced, subjective well-being. Existing evidence is mixed, with some studies reporting retirement as positively related to well-being and others reporting a negative relationship or none at all. Our research indicates that developmental and social contexts shape an individual's retirement decisions and experiences, so that retirement should be studied in its ecological and life-course context. Research on marital quality and subjective well-being in retirement has demonstrated both similarities and differences between men and women, as well as the need to consider couples conjointly (rather than viewing individuals in isolation). Future research focusing on the retirement process as it unfolds over time and in ecological context can serve to illuminate the circumstances under which retirement promotes or detracts from the quality of life.

The “Blurring” of the Lifecourse: Narrative, Memory and the Question of Authenticity

The view that aging provokes its own form of masquerade raises the question of what lies behind the mask and whether it is possible to outline what an authentic existence in later life might be like. Contemporary trends toward a narrative explanation of identity, exemplified by the growth of narrative therapies, may pose particular difficulties for theorising about aging. These therapies are associated with a submersion of the personal and social past under demands in the here and now and the de-contextualisation of old age from the lifecourse as it has been lived. Memory and lifecourse context are examined as possible foundations for authenticity and a model is suggested that contains postmodern preoccupations with multiple identity choices, the personal past and the possibilities for expression made available by particular social spaces or contexts.

Gray Power: Agenda For Future Research

ABSTRACTGray Power came into prominence in the 1970s and has received considerable attention among social gerontologists. This paper reviews studies on gray power, political consciousness among the elderly and advocacy by organizations on behalf of older people, and it considers their implications for further research. Constructing the agenda for future research on gray power requires recognizing the diversity of older people and the life-course context through which individuals shape their concepts of old age and its meaning. Studies on political power need to be longitudinal as well as cross-sectional. Furthermore, studies on the political power of older people should consider how the young and middle-aged perceive their power relative to issues of common concern. Finally the studies of age advocacy groups should be linked with those of other advocacy organizations involved in social change (e.g. the disabled). The paper concludes that research on gray power should be fostered along inter-disciplinary lines of inquiry.