Childhood poverty and adult heart and metabolic health in men

Childhood Antecedents of Adult Cardiometabolic health: A Prospective Study of Low-Income Men

NIH-funded research University of Pittsburgh at Pittsburgh · NIH-11171405

This project follows males from low-income backgrounds to learn how childhood experiences shape adult heart disease and diabetes risk.

Quick facts

Grant typeR01 grant
Study typeNIH-funded research
Funding institutionUniversity of Pittsburgh at Pittsburgh NIH-funded
Lab location1 site (Pittsburgh, United States)
Project IDNIH-11171405 on NIH RePORTER

What this research studies

If you join, researchers will follow you from childhood into adulthood and take routine health measures like blood pressure, weight, cholesterol, and blood tests for inflammation and sugar control. They will collect information about family life, school, and neighborhood conditions to see which childhood periods and experiences matter most for later health. The team will look for protective strengths that help some people avoid problems and will examine how race and socioeconomic status combine to affect risk. Visits may include questionnaires, clinical measurements, and blood samples, and the study will use long-term tracking to connect early life to adult cardiometabolic outcomes.

Who could benefit from this research

Good fit: Ideal participants are males who grew up in low-income households and are willing to share childhood history and undergo periodic health checks and blood tests.

Not a fit: People seeking immediate treatment for existing heart disease or women are unlikely to get direct clinical benefit from this observational study focused on men from disadvantaged childhoods.

Why it matters

Potential benefit: Findings could point to early-life risk and protective factors that help target prevention to reduce heart disease and diabetes in disadvantaged men.

How similar studies have performed: Previous long-term studies have linked childhood disadvantage to adult cardiometabolic problems, but this work is more focused on timing, pathways, and protective factors specifically in low-income men.

Where this research is happening

Pittsburgh, United States

Researchers

About this research

  1. This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
  2. Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
  3. For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.
Conditions Cardiometabolic DiseaseCardiometabolic Disorder
Last reviewed 2026-06-10 by the Find a Trial editorial team. Information on this page is for educational purposes and is not medical advice. Always consult qualified healthcare professionals about clinical trial participation.