# Early Environmental Stressors and Emerging Cardiometabolic Risk

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA · 2020 · $650,738

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Heart disease is a leading cause of death in the US and obesity is an important risk factor. While
cardiometabolic diseases have peak prevalence in adulthood, the assessment of cardiometabolic risk
processes in childhood is critical in order to define the early causal factors that contribute to the development
of chronic disease and to identify potential pathways for prevention. Previous studies have shown that
traditional cardiometabolic risk factors (e.g., hypertension) track from childhood into adulthood.
Socioeconomic disadvantage and psychosocial stressors have also been linked to obesity in childhood and to
later risk of cardiovascular disease. However, a major knowledge gap remains in understanding how
environmental, behavioral, and biological contexts interact to influence cardiometabolic risk in the developing
child and influence later disease outcomes. The proposed study will examine the relationship between early
environmental stressors and emerging cardiometabolic risk by extending a unique cohort of 534
racially/ethnically diverse, predominantly low income children who have been studied longitudinally since they
were 2-4 years of age [The NET-Works Trial (U01HD068890; Sherwood/French PIs), part of the COPTR
consortium (Child Obesity Prevention and Treatment Research Consortium, NIH/NHLBI/DCVS/PPSP)]. The
overall goal of the proposed study is to characterize the emergence of dysregulation in
cardiometabolic processes in a high-risk cohort of children at 7-9 years of age, and elucidate the
pathways through which early environmental stressors influence cardiometabolic risk. Four existing
measurement time points provide rich information about psychosocial stressors in children's homes and
neighborhoods, physiological measures of children's stress (cortisol levels from hair samples), and patterns of
children's health behavior. New data collection when children are 7-9 years of age will add a comprehensive
state-of-the-science cardiometabolic assessment. Specifically, this study will (1) establish and quantify the
independent influence of and interaction between home and neighborhood environmental stressors in early
childhood on cardiometabolic risk in middle childhood and (2) examine the role of children's health behaviors
(i.e., physical activity, dietary intake, and screen time) and cortisol levels in emerging cardiometabolic risk,
and determine whether health behaviors and cortisol mediate the relationship between environmental
stressors and cardiometabolic risk. This prospective, multi-component approach to measuring early
environmental stressors and emerging cardiometabolic risk processes, at a developmental stage when
precursors of cardiometabolic disease can begin to be observed but before the manifestation of overt disease,
will help us define early causal factors that set the stage for later development of adult chronic conditions.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9910419
- **Project number:** 5R01HD090059-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
- **Principal Investigator:** Alicia S Kunin-Batson
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $650,738
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-08-21 → 2022-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9910419

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9910419, Early Environmental Stressors and Emerging Cardiometabolic Risk (5R01HD090059-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9910419. Licensed CC0.

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