Maternal depression and adverse neighbourhood conditions during pregnancy are associated with gestational epigenetic age deceleration

ABSTRACT

Gestational epigenetic age (GEA) acceleration and deceleration can indicate developmental risk and may help elucidate how prenatal exposures lead to offspring outcomes. Depression and neighbourhood conditions during pregnancy are well-established determinants of birth and child outcomes. Emerging research suggests that maternal depression may contribute to GEA deceleration. It is unknown whether prenatal neighbourhood adversity would likewise influence GEA deceleration. This study examined whether maternal depression and neighbourhood conditions independently or jointly contributed to GEA deceleration, and which social and environmental neighbourhood conditions were associated with GEA. Participants were from the Albany Infant and Mother Study (n = 204), a prospective non-probability sampled cohort of higher risk racial/ethnic diverse mother/infant dyads. GEA was estimated from cord blood. Depressive symptoms and census-tract level neighbourhood conditions were assessed during pregnancy. Maternal depression (β = −0.03, SE = 0.01, p = 0.008) and neighbourhood adversity (β = −0.32, SE = 0.14, p = 0.02) were independently associated with GEA deceleration, controlling for all covariates including antidepressant use and cell type proportions. Neighbourhood adversity did not modify the association of maternal depression and GEA (β = 0.003, SE = 0.03, p = 0.92). igher levels of neighbourhood poverty, public assistance, and lack of healthy food access were each associated with GEA deceleration; higher elementary school test scores (an indicator of community tax base) were associated with GEA acceleration (all p < 0.001). The results of this study indicated that maternal depression and neighbourhood conditions were independently and cumulatively associated GEA in this diverse population.

KEYWORDS:

• Gestational epigenetic age acceleration
• developmental origins of health and disease
• maternal depression
• neighbourhood conditions

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a JPB Environmental Health Fellowship award granted to Dr. Appleton by The JPB Foundation and managed by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and also by a SUNY Research Seed Grant Multidisciplinary Small Team Award (RSG201024.2).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability

Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data is not available online. Data sharing requests should be sent to the study investigators directly.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the SUNY Seed Grant and the JPB Foundation [RSG201024.2].