Cardiovascular Health and Needs Assessment in Washington D.C.

National Heart, Lung, And Blood Institute

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

We used qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of PA-monitoring wristbands and web-based technology by predominantly African-American, church-based populations in resource-limited Washington, DC neighborhoods. At the recommendation of the community advisory board, we conducted a focus group and piloted the proposed PA-monitoring system in the community. We demonstrated the feasibility of online account usage, wristband utilization and measurement of objective PA data. We explored user characteristics of PA-tracking, wearable technology among the health and needs assessment population. DC CV Health and Needs Assessment participants received a mobile health (mHealth) PA monitor and wirelessly uploaded PA data weekly to church data collection hubs. Findings suggested that mHealth systems with a wearable device and data-collection hub may feasibly target PA in resource-limited communities. Efforts to reduce barriers to using mHealth technology in resource-limited settings may aid in decreasing CV health disparities in at-risk populations. We examined the acceptability and feasibility of digital food records among study participants using a mixed methods approach. Overall, the participants accepted the digital food record by demonstrating satisfaction with the tool and intent to continue the use. This study demonstrated digital food records as an acceptable tool in CBPR and identified contributors and barriers to the feasibility of digital food records for future research. We developed tools assessing the relationship between the neighborhood built environment and health behaviors or outcomes for the target populations in the DC CV Health and Needs Assessment. We found that Active Neighborhood Checklist adequately captured neighborhood features in lower-income, residential areas and may aid in delineating impact of specific built environment features on health behaviors and outcomes. We examined associations of perceived and objective neighborhood environment (NE) with sedentary time (ST) in the DC CV Health and Needs Assessment. Poorer NE perception was associated with greater ST for those in lower income areas, while objective environment was unrelated to ST. Multi-level interventions are needed to improve NE perceptions in lower-median income areas, reduce ST, and improve CV health. We also used data from the DC CV Health and Needs Assessment to quantify the impact of crime on physical activity location accessibility, leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) and obesity among African-American women. Our simulations with an agent-based model representing resource-limited DC communities and their populations showed that reducing crime through multilevel interventions (i.e. economic development initiatives to increase time available for physical activity) may promote greater than linear declines in obesity prevalence. Crime prevention strategies alone can help prevent obesity, but combining such efforts with other ways to encourage physical activity can yield even greater benefits. We compared relationships between perceived and objective neighborhood characteristics, depressive symptoms, and CVD markers within the DC CV Health and Needs Assessment. Perceived physical/social environment and social cohesion were related to depressive symptoms while perceived violence was not. Of objective measures, only property crime score was associated with depressive symptoms. For CVD risk biomarkers, greater depressive symptoms were associated with increasing IL-1beta and IL-18. This finding suggested biological pathways by which neighborhood social environment can lead to poor CV health by way of depressive symptoms. We examined the relationship between chronic stress-related neural activity as a marker of chronic psychosocial stress and arterial inflammation as measured by aortic vascular FDG uptake in a subset of the DC CV Health and Needs Assessment cohort. We found that amygdala activity as a marker of chronic stress-related neural activity was associated with vascular FDG uptake, after adjustment for CVD risk factors. We also found that this relationship was in part mediated by the hematopoietic system. These findings suggested a potential mechanism by which chronic psychosocial stress, including stress in adverse social conditions, can increase CV risk in resource-limited populations. We worked in collaboration with the Wallen laboratory at the NIH Clinical Center to explore relationships between neighborhood deprivation index (NDI) and the microbial metabolite, trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) in a subset of the CV Health and Needs Assessment participants, given that the connection between neighborhood environment and the microbiome in relation to CVD risk has not been fully explored. We found that, among a small sample of African-American adults with CVD risk, there was a significant positive relationship with NDI and TMAO mediated by inflammation. Given the greater risk of Class III obesity and CVD among African Americans, we examined the effects of lipids on monocytes in a subset of the DC CV Health and Needs Assessment cohort. In ex vivo and in vitro studies, we found that LDL cholesterol was associated with subset specific changes in CCR2 and CCR5 expression in monocytes, which may have implications for CVD risk in high risk populations with hyperlipidemia and increased CVD risk. We characterized the role of neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation (NSD) and individual-level socioeconomic status (SES) as potential sources of chronic stress related to downstream immunological factors in this stress-associated biologic pathway. We studied how NSD, SES, and catecholamine levels (as proxy for sympathetic nervous system activation) may influence monocytes which are known to play a significant role in atherogenesis. First, we demonstrated that dopamine was associated with greater NSD and lower SES in a community based cohort. Using an ex vivo approach, we demonstrated that dopamine in patient serum and NSD were associated with monocyte CCR2 expression, a receptor known to facilitate recruitment to arterial plaques. In in vitro experiments, we showed that CCR2 expression was dependent on a dopamine receptor D2 signaling pathway. Overall, we provide a novel immunological mechanism, driven by DA signaling and CCR2, for how NSD and SES may contribute to atherogenesis. Prior studies have shown that high HDL cholesterol is associated with poor CVD events. Therefore, we studied the relationships between NSD as a marker of chronic stress, inflammation, proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) (a core component of the HDL proteome), HDL characteristics, and biological aging as a predictor of CVD and all-cause mortality in a subset of the DC CV Health and Needs Assessment cohort. Our findings suggest indirect pathways linking neighborhood deprivation-related stress and inflammation to HDL and immune epigenetic changes. Moreover, these results add to recent work showing the pathogenicity of high HDL levels and underscore the need to understand how chronic stress-related inflammation and lipoprotein subspecies relate to CVD risk across diverse populations. Finally, we examined associations between amygdala activity (left (L), right (R), maximum (M), and average (Av), and splenic and bone marrow activity as determined by 18Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT scans in the DC CV Health and Needs Assessment cohort. We examined how these markers of chronic stress and hematopoietic activity relate to the DNA methylation of stress-associated genes in the cohort. Our findings suggest a potential association between AmygA, SpleenA, and pro-inflammatory cytokines in the setting of chronic stress, suggesting an adverse hematopoietic effect. Furthermore, findings reveal associations with epigenetic markers of NFκB and JAK/STAT pathways linked to chronic stress. Additionally, we have worked with Howard University and NIH investigators to look at barriers to clinical trial participation in the African American community through the HoPeNET study.