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Early Community Contexts, Race/Ethnicity and Young Adult CVD Risk Factors: The Protective Role of Education

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Abstract

Using a sample of 13,500 adolescents (53% female and 47% male) who participated in all four waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study used multilevel regression to examine the influence of early structural community adversity (as measured by rates of community poverty, single-parent headed families, and two indicators of employment) and racial/ethnic status on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors of young adults (systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and mean arterial pressure). The moderating role of youth’s socioeconomic attainment was also examined. Results indicate that early community adversity and African American racial status place young adults at risk for CVD. Youth’s socioeconomic attainment does not erase the persistent influences of early community adversity and African American racial status on CVD risk. However, the level of education attained can protect African American young adults and those experiencing early community adversity from CVD risk factors.

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Acknowledgments

This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth). No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis.

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Correspondence to Catherine Walker O’Neal.

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Wickrama, K.A.S., O’Neal, C.W. & Lott, R.E. Early Community Contexts, Race/Ethnicity and Young Adult CVD Risk Factors: The Protective Role of Education. J Community Health 37, 781–790 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-011-9511-2

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