Early-Life Trajectories of Socioeconomic Disadvantage, Genetic Risk, and Adult Blood Pressure

Kristen M. Schorpp, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Michael J. Shanahan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Although hypertension has a complex disease etiology that emerges from both environmental and genetic factors, the interplay of socioeconomic disadvantage and genetic risk to produce cardiovascular outcomes is rarely examined. Using the nationally representative Add Health Study, this study builds on prior sociological and genetic research to investigate whether the effect of early-life trajectories of family and neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage on adult blood pressure and hypertension is moderated by several markers of genetic risk. Results identify a significant main effect of family disadvantage, neighborhood disadvantage, and genetic risk on adult blood pressure, with some evidence of a moderating effect of genetic risk depending on the risk marker assessed and timing of socioeconomic disadvantage. These results suggest that blood pressure outcomes hinge upon the combination of environmental disadvantage across early life and genetic vulnerability.