# Rural-Urban Differences in Polygenic Associations for Health and Health Behaviors

> **NIH NIH R03** · UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO · 2023 · $155,364

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
This project offers a different perspective on rural-urban health disparities by examining the potential role played
by genetic predisposition toward cardiovascular health (CVH) risk. The findings from this work provide critical
insight for population health policy given the importance of understanding the fundamental and complex origins
of health challenges, be they social or biological, or a combination of both. We use five waves of data from the
National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) and build upon recent research that has
demonstrated a clear urban cardiovascular health advantage across four measured and self-reported indicators
of CVH: 1) Obesity; 2) High Cholesterol; 3) Hypertension; and 4) Diabetes. Our study examines rural-urban
differences in the association between each of these measures of CVH and its corresponding polygenic score
(PGS) which measures genetic predisposition toward each of the health outcomes. PGS values for three of these
health outcomes already exist and we create PGS estimates for hypertension. This measure will be made
available to Add Health users to fuel additional research on the intersections between social and genetic aspects
of health disparities. Based on the small amount of research published on rural-urban disparities, we anticipate
that genetic influences on CVH will be substantially lower among residents of rural areas compared to urban
area residents. In doing so, this study will contribute to literatures in both social and genetic epidemiology related
to rural-urban health disparities.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10734666
- **Project number:** 1R03AG080244-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO
- **Principal Investigator:** Jason D Boardman
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $155,364
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2023-09-01 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10734666

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10734666, Rural-Urban Differences in Polygenic Associations for Health and Health Behaviors (1R03AG080244-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10734666. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*