Clinical, Epidemiological, and Molecular Insights from the Future of Families Cardiovascular Health Study
with
Daniel A. Notterman, MA, MD
Princeton University
As the original cohort of the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study enters early adulthood, this lecture presents findings from a population-based sample of 2,000 young adults examining how childhood adversity, risk behaviors, and social and demographic factors shape early cardiovascular health. We report associations between these exposures and multiple cardiovascular outcomes, including the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 cardiovascular health score, carotid intima–media thickness, and related clinical and laboratory markers of atherosclerosis. At age 23, specific risk behaviors were linked to poorer cardiovascular health and increased CIMT, indicating early vascular disease. Longitudinal DNA methylation analyses at ages 9, 15, and 23 reveal that many of these abnormalities are associated with gene-specific methylation changes detectable by age 9, which persist through adolescence into adulthood, suggesting the emergence of an adverse epigenetic phenotype well before puberty.