In As You Like It, Shakespeare has Rosalind tell us that “time travels in divers places with divers persons.” In Shakespeare’s era, the measurement of time was

Exposure in utero to particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) is associated with maladaptive health outcomes. Although exposure to prenatal PM2.5 and PM10 has cord blood DNA methylation signatures at birth, signature persistence into childhood and saliva cross-tissue applicability has not been tested. In the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a United States 20-city birth cohort, average residential PM2.5 and PM10 during the three months prior to birth was estimated using air quality monitors with inverse distance weighting. Saliva DNA methylation at ages 9 (n = 749) and 15 (n = 793) was measured using the Illumina HumanMethylation 450 k BeadArray. Cumulative DNA methylation scores for particulate matter were estimated by weighting participant DNA methylation at each site by independent meta-analysis effect estimates and standardizing the sums. Using a mixed-effects regression analysis, we tested the associations between cumulative DNA methylation scores at ages 9 and 15 and PM exposure during pregnancy, adjusted for child sex, age, race/ethnicity, maternal income-to-needs ratio, nonmartial birth status, and saliva cell-type proportions. Our study sample was 50.5% male, 56.3% non-Hispanic Black, and 19.8% Hispanic, with a median income-to-needs ratio of 1.4. Mean exposure levels for PM2.5 were 27.9 μg/m³/day (standard deviation: 7.0; 23.7% of observations exceeded safety standards) and for PM10 were 15.0 μg/m³/day (standard deviation: 3.1). An interquartile range increase in PM2.5 exposure (10.73 μg/m³/day) was associated with a −0.0287 standard deviation lower cumulative DNA methylation score for PM2.5 (95% CI: −0.0732, 0.0158, p = 0.20) across all participants. An interquartile range increase in PM10 exposure (3.20 μg/m³/day) was associated with a −0.1472 standard deviation lower cumulative DNA methylation score for PM10 (95% CI: −0.3038, 0.0095, p = 0.06) across all participants. The PM10 findings were driven by the age 15 subset where an interquartile range increase in PM10 exposure was associated with a −0.024 standard deviation lower cumulative DNA methylation score for PM10 (95% CI: −0.043, −0.005, p = 0.012). Findings were robust to adjustment for PM exposure at ages 1 and 3. In utero PM10-associated DNA methylation differences were identified at age 15 in saliva. Benchmarking the timing and cell-type generalizability is critical for epigenetic exposure biomarker assessment.

Background: Childhood social determinants of adult cardiovascular health and potential mechanisms that link them are poorly understood. The FF‐CHAYA (Future of Families–Cardiovascular Health Among Young Adults) study is designed to address these knowledge gaps. Methods: The FF‐CHAYA sample is a subcohort of the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, which enrolled 4897 mother–baby dyads at delivery beginning in 1998 to 2000 and collected extensive data on neighborhood, family, school, and behavioral exposures at birth and offspring ages 1, 3, 5, 9, 15, and 22 years. From 2021 to 2023, we performed an in‐person examination on 1421 offspring, including obtaining questionnaire responses addressing health status and health behaviors, and performance of anthropometry, blood pressure measurement, phlebotomy, and carotid ultrasonography using standardized protocols. An additional 620 offspring answered questionnaires electronically. Cardiovascular health status was quantified using the Life's Essential 8 score (0–100; higher is better cardiovascular health). Measurement of carotid intima‐media thickness, grayscale lucency, and carotid distensibility was performed. Results: Among 1975 nonpregnant participants, mean age was 23.2±0.8 years, 55% identified as female, 19.5% White, 49.1% Black, 26.7% Hispanic, and 4.7% as Asian or multiple race/ethnicity. Mean body mass index was 29.0±8.2 kg/m ² , and mean Life's Essential 8 score was 69.2±13.0 points, with significant variation by demographic groups. Carotid measures indicate accelerated early arterial injury. Conclusions: This article describes the rationale, study design and methods, and characteristics of the FF‐CHAYA cohort, a novel longitudinal study designed to examine associations of childhood social determinants with young adult cardiovascular health and early arterial injury, as well as potential epigenetic mechanisms that may mediate these associations.

This paper examines whether the association between markers of socioeconomic status (SES) and cardiovascular health are weaker among Black and Hispanic young adults than White young adults. Estimates are derived from the Future of Families-Cardiovascular Health among Young Adults Study (FF-CHAYA), 2021-2023. Participants (N = 1421, average age 22.9) were sampled from the Future of Families Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) that collected data in 7 waves in 20 large US cities. We used regression models to explore the link between a 7-metric cardiovascular health score and 6 measures of SES at the individual, family, and neighborhood levels for White (N = 243), Black (N = 730) and Hispanic (N = 388) young adults. The estimated interaction terms between the socioeconomic measures and race/ethnicity reveal that socioeconomic differentials in the cardiovascular health score among Black and Hispanic young adults are significantly smaller than those for their White counterparts. The finding that returns to health with increasing education and economic wellbeing are lower among Black and Hispanic than White young adults is consistent with theories of exposure to discrimination.