TY - JOUR
T1 - Community violence exposure and cortisol awakening responses in adolescents who are overweight/obese
AU - Wexler, Jacob
AU - Ajibewa, Tiwaloluwa A.
AU - Lee, Joyce
AU - Toledo-Corral, Claudia
AU - Hasson, Rebecca E.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2020/11
Y1 - 2020/11
N2 - Background: Community violence exposure has been identified as a salient environmental stressor associated with dysregulated cortisol awakening response (CAR), which may act to exacerbate hypothalamic−pituitary−adrenal (HPA) axis dysregulation observed in adolescents who are overweight/obese. Purpose: To perform an exploratory cross-sectional analysis examining the association between community violence exposure and CAR in adolescents who are overweight/obese. Methods: One-hundred adolescents (ages: 13–19 years; 65% female; average BMI percentile: 93.80 ± 4.13) were included in this analysis. Community violence exposure was measured using the Survey of Children's Exposure to Community Violence. Salivary cortisol collected across three days at awakening and 30 min post-awakening was used to calculate CAR area under the curve (AUC). Results: Community violence exposure was associated with a lower CAR AUC when controlling for baseline cortisol, sex, BMI, pubertal development, race and perceived stress (β = −0.04 ± 0.02; p = 0.04). Conclusion: Findings from this study identified cross-sectional association between community violence and HPA dysregulation in adolescents who were overweight/obese. If long-term exposure to community violence does indeed accelerate HPA dysregulation in adolescents at increased weight status, policymakers and interventionists should consider implementing programs that limit adolescent violence exposure.
AB - Background: Community violence exposure has been identified as a salient environmental stressor associated with dysregulated cortisol awakening response (CAR), which may act to exacerbate hypothalamic−pituitary−adrenal (HPA) axis dysregulation observed in adolescents who are overweight/obese. Purpose: To perform an exploratory cross-sectional analysis examining the association between community violence exposure and CAR in adolescents who are overweight/obese. Methods: One-hundred adolescents (ages: 13–19 years; 65% female; average BMI percentile: 93.80 ± 4.13) were included in this analysis. Community violence exposure was measured using the Survey of Children's Exposure to Community Violence. Salivary cortisol collected across three days at awakening and 30 min post-awakening was used to calculate CAR area under the curve (AUC). Results: Community violence exposure was associated with a lower CAR AUC when controlling for baseline cortisol, sex, BMI, pubertal development, race and perceived stress (β = −0.04 ± 0.02; p = 0.04). Conclusion: Findings from this study identified cross-sectional association between community violence and HPA dysregulation in adolescents who were overweight/obese. If long-term exposure to community violence does indeed accelerate HPA dysregulation in adolescents at increased weight status, policymakers and interventionists should consider implementing programs that limit adolescent violence exposure.
KW - Adolescents
KW - Community violence
KW - Cortisol awakening response
KW - Obesity
KW - Stress
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U2 - 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2020.104842
DO - 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2020.104842
M3 - Article
C2 - 32892064
AN - SCOPUS:85090035846
SN - 0306-4530
VL - 121
JO - Psychoneuroendocrinology
JF - Psychoneuroendocrinology
M1 - 104842
ER -