Social
Historic redlining and epigenetic depression risk in the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study Isabella Palomba* Helen Meier Isabella Palomba
Introduction: Historic structural racism has disproportionately burdened low-income and predominantly minority neighborhoods, and studies have shown associations with present day neighborhood health outcomes. Less well understood is whether historic structural racism is associated with individual-level outcomes including depression.
Methods: Data come from wave 6 (age 15) of the Future Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), a cohort study representative of urban births from large US cities. Historic redlining scores, one indicator of historic structural racism, were calculated from the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) residential rankings contained within the 2010 US Census Tract boundaries. A polyepigenetic score for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) risk was estimated from participant salivary methylation data. This score was generated based on a meta-analysis that identified variably-methylated CpG sites in individuals with MDD to characterize risk of MDD. Linear regression controlling for assay type, maternal education, birth city, maternal smoking and cell proportions of the sample, estimated the association between historic redlining and epigenetic MDD risk (N=2084).
Results: Approximately 31.3% of participants lived in formerly redlined areas. We did not observe a statistically significant association between living in historic redlined neighborhoods at age 15 and epigenetic markers of MDD (β=0.017, 95% CI [-355.842, 864.804]).
Conclusions: Epigenetic signatures of MDD may not explain the increased prevalence of depression in individuals living in historically redlined neighborhoods during adolescence.