Neighborhoods to Nucleotides —Advances and Gaps for an Obesity Disparities Systems Epidemiology Model

AbstractPurpose of ReviewDisparities in prevalence of  obesity in the USA continue to increase. Here, we review progress and highlight gaps in understanding disparities in obesity with a focus on the Hispanic/Latino population from a systems epidemiology framework. We review seven domains: environment, behavior, biomarkers, nutrition, microbiome, geno mics, and epigenomics/transcriptomics. We focus on recent advances that integrate at least two or more of these domains, and then provide a real-world example of data collection efforts that encompass these domains.Recent FindingsResearch into discrimination-related  DNA methylation patterns and how microbiome profiles are related to eating and physical activity behaviors is furthering understanding of why disparities in obesity persist. Environmental and neighborhood level research is uncovering the importance of exposures such as air and noise pollution a nd systematic or structural racism for obesity and related outcomes through behaviors such as sleep.SummaryObesity disparities and the biological processes associated with them must be better contextualized within the social, economic, and political environments that contribute to them. One avenue for accomplishing this is by modeling relationships between within-body mechanisms and omics and beyond-body mechanisms and exposures. However, data integration across the various domains and data collection are significant challenges for generating a comprehensive systems mod...
Source: Current Epidemiology Reports - Category: Epidemiology Source Type: research