An innovative new study led by UCF expert examines epigenetic aging in Black pregnant women to reduce disparities and improve birth outcomes.
Maternal age is a well-documented factor for preterm birth, with women ages 40 and older at the greatest risk. But as the saying goes, age is just a number.
“Chronological age (age based on a birth year) assumes that individuals age at the same rate, but we know that is not true thanks to advances in research,” says Carmen Giurgescu, a world-renowned maternal health expert and associate dean of research at UCF’s College of Nursing.
“Black women of the same age as white women have a higher risk for preterm birth,” she says.
Giurgescu is leading a new five-year $3.3 million study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, to examine the epigenetic, or biological, age of pregnant Black women and its potential in determining risk for preterm birth.
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