# Racial inequalities in health throughout adulthood: The cumulative impact of neighborhood chemical and non-chemical stressors on epigenomic pathways

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2020 · $760,587

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Racial inequalities in healthy aging have been well-documented. Compared to White Americans, Black
Americans experience illness and death at early ages and show steeper age-related declines in health. Our
neighborhoods, as the site of where we live, learn, play, and pray, may serve as a powerful source of these
racial inequalities. Racial residential segregation (which is the sorting of different racial groups into different
neighborhoods through historical and current discriminatory policies and practices) has resulted in a racially
unequal American neighborhood landscape. Neighborhoods with mostly Black residents experience more
poverty, civic and commercial disinvestment, and more exposure to environmental hazards compared to
neighborhoods with mostly White residents. While more researchers are documenting the role of
neighborhoods in health inequalities, we may actually be underestimating the true impact of neighborhood
context, because we often focus on specific health outcomes, such as cardiovascular disease or diabetes.
However, there are likely shared biological mechanisms within the body that drive many of these diseases –
and one such mechanism may be changes to our genomic structure, called epigenomics. While our genes do
not change, the environment can have an impact on whether our genes are actually “expressed”. We will
determine whether the accumulation of adulthood lived experience in racially-segregated neighborhoods is
related to epigenomic patterns called DNA methylation. We will also specifically determine whether the
accumulation of adulthood exposure to neighborhood industrial air pollution and disadvantage together are
related to these patterns of DNA methylation. Finally, we will determine whether the DNA methylation patterns
we see are related to racial inequalities in healthy aging. We hypothesize that racially-segregation Black
neighborhoods, with their greater levels of industrial air pollution and social disadvantage, will be related to the
types of patterns in DNA methylation that have been shown to be related to chronic diseases in molecular
studies. In fact, we further hypothesize that these patterns in DNA methylation will be related to racial
inequalities in cognitive function and the number of chronic diseases one has had. Clarifying the role of
neighborhood context in racial inequalities in healthy aging is critical, as neighborhoods are not naturally-
occurring. They develop and change through policies and are amenable to intervention. Identifying the role of
DNA methylation that likely underlies many chronic diseases, will clarify the importance of neighborhoods and
point to potential effective interventions.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9890792
- **Project number:** 5R01MD013299-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** Margaret Takako Hicken
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $760,587
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-08-14 → 2023-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9890792

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9890792, Racial inequalities in health throughout adulthood: The cumulative impact of neighborhood chemical and non-chemical stressors on epigenomic pathways (5R01MD013299-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9890792. Licensed CC0.

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