Research Seminar: Early-life Social Conditions and Later-life Health: the Biodemography of Aging and the Life Course -Yang Claire Yang
Dr. Yang will give a summary of collaborative projects that reflect our long-term interest in an integrative life course framework for understanding social behavioral and biological mechanisms producing disparities in health and longevity. She focuses on two prominent examples of social factors: social relationships and socioeconomic status. Drawing on data from four nationally-representative longitudinal samples of the U.S. population, her team implemented an innovative life course design to assess the prospective association of multidimensional measures of social relationships and life course SES with objectively measured biomarkers of physical health (e.g., C-reactive protein, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, waist circumference, body mass index, and metabolic syndrome) across life stages from adolescence to old age. Their studies provide new causal evidence on the various mechanisms liking social status to health. Dr. Yang will discuss further how an extensive life course design integrating social and biological measures can advance explanations of the emergence and progression of diseases across the human life span.