Racialized experience, biomarkers of lead exposure, and later-life cognition: a mediation analysis.

Autor:	Jenson TE; Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Zilber School of Public Health, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA., Bakulski KM; Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA., Wesp L; College of Nursing, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA., Dookeran K; Department of Epidemiology, Zilber School of Public Health, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA., Driscoll I; Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, USA.; Geriatrics, Department of Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, USA., Kalkbrenner AE; Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Zilber School of Public Health, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	MedRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences [medRxiv] 2023 Apr 26. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Apr 26.
DOI:	10.1101/2023.04.22.23288920
Abstrakt:	We evaluated the role of the neurotoxicant lead (Pb) in mediating racial disparities in later-life cognition in 1,085 non-Hispanic Black and 2,839 non-Hispanic white participants in NHANES (1999-2002, 2011-2014) 60+ years of age. We operationalized Black race as a marker for the experience of racialization and exposure to systemic racism. We estimated patella bone Pb via predictive models using blood Pb and demographics. Concurrent cognition (processing speed, sustained attention, working memory) was measured by the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST) and a global measure combining four cognitive tests. To obtain the portion mediated, we used regression coefficients (race on Pb * Pb on cognitive score)/(race on cognitive score), adjusting for age, NHANES cycle, and sample weights. Other confounder adjustment (education, poverty income ratio, smoking) was limited to the mediator-outcome (i.e., Pb-cognition) pathway because these factors do not lie upstream of race and so cannot confound associations with race. Pb was estimated to mediate 0.6% of the association between race and global cognition, and 4% of the DSST. Our results suggest that later-life cognitive health disparities may be impacted by avoidable lead exposure driven by environmental injustice, noting that a large proportion of the pathway of systemic racism harming cognition remains. Competing Interests: Conflict Statement Tara E. Jenson declares that she has no conflicts of interest. Kelly M. Bakulski declares that she has no conflicts of interest. Linda Wesp declares that she has no conflicts of interest. Keith Dookeran declares that he has no conflicts of interest. Ira Driscoll declares that she has no conflicts of interest. Amy E. Kalkbrenner declares that she has no conflicts of interest.
Databáze:	MEDLINE
Externí odkaz:	Zobrazit plný text záznamu