Early Life Neighborhood Disadvantage and Blood Pressure in Early Adulthood

Karen Gerken, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

A growing literature indicates that early life circumstances are associated with health and susceptibility to disease in adulthood. We contribute to this literature by investigating the extent to which neighborhood disadvantage experienced prior to adulthood impacts adult health. We use longitudinal data from the Add Health to construct census-tract level indexes of disadvantage for two early stages in the life course: adolescence and the transition to adulthood. With these repeated measures on neighborhood context, we examine how three aspects of exposure to neighborhood disadvantage—life stage timing, duration, and mobility into or out of neighborhood disadvantage—are associated with blood pressure in adulthood. We find that life stage matters, as increased exposure to disadvantage in adolescence especially increases adult blood pressure, but duration is equally as important in predicting adult health. Mobility into or out of disadvantage matters less, as baseline neighborhood disadvantage is the primary indicator of adult health.