Director of the Public Policy Center to lead research project for IPRC, funded by CDC grant

The University of Iowa was recently awarded a $4.3 million grant by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to continue its Injury Prevention Research Center (IPRC).

The funds, which will be distributed over a five-year period, will support Iowa researchers investigating the science of injury prevention as they develop and evaluate interventions and collaborate with public partners to mitigate injuries and violence.  

The grant includes four interdisciplinary research projects led by University of Iowa investigators, one of which will be spearheaded by Mark Berg, director of the Public Policy Center (PPC). The project, titled “Adverse childhood experiences and accelerated epigenetic aging in adulthood: A longitudinal investigation of resilience among low-income Black Americans” intends to shed light on the long-term health impacts of adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, and the factors that foster resilience in the face of these challenges. 

Adverse Childhood Experiences, Accelerated Aging, and Resilience 

ACEs, which include exposure to abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction, have been widely recognized as risk factors for poor health outcomes later in life. Research has established strong links between ACEs and a range of health issues in adulthood, including self-reported physical and mental health struggles, heart disease, and respiratory disease. For example, in previous work, Berg found that ACEs predict cardiovascular disease risk in adulthood, regardless of whether these adverse experiences were remembered as adults.  

Berg’s new project will further explore how ACEs accelerate the aging process, leaving individuals biologically older than their calendar age. To examine this subject, Berg’s team will leverage data from the Family and Community Health Study (FACHS), a longitudinal study that began in 1997 and includes 889 Black families living in Iowa and Georgia. Over the past two decades, FACHS has collected multiple waves of data, providing a rich dataset that includes biological indicators of health deterioration known as biomarkers. 

However, there remains a lack of understanding as to why some individuals are more resilient to these adverse health effects than others.  

"Resilience is one of the great puzzles in the literature we have on ACEs,” said Berg. “Our hope is to take an incremental step towards deciphering this puzzle.”  

External resilience factors may include supportive communities or neighborhoods, access to quality education, and strong social relationships. Internal factors encompass personal qualities like confidence, self-control, and optimism. The study’s approach aims to identify the specific mechanisms that protect against the negative health effects of ACEs, with a particular focus on understanding how these resilience factors operate across the lifespan.  

Contributing to UI IPRC Priorities  

The IPRC has long studied strategies for the prevention and mitigation of ACEs, and is developing a Research and Practice Action Team, or RPAT, to address emerging issues and foster collaboration between researchers. Berg’s project will contribute to this area of focus, while the other projects supported by the CDC grant will hone in on other IPRC priorities, such as substance use and fall prevention.  

Berg’s research team includes co-investigators Ethan Rogers, interim research and operations manager of the PPC, and Man-Kit Lei and Ronald L. Simons of the University of Georgia. Yi-Fang Lu, postdoctoral research scholar at the PPC, will also provide research assistance on the project.   

To learn more about the IPRC grant and the other projects that will be supported through these funds, click here.