Lower Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status Associated with Reduced Diversity of the Colonic Microbiota in Healthy Adults

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Citation
PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.
DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.
Authors
Miller GE, Engen PA, Gillevet PM, Shaikh M, Sikaroodi M, Forsyth CB, Mutlu E, Keshavarzian A
Journal
PloS one
Year
2016
In the United States, there are persistent and widening socioeconomic gaps in morbidity and mortality from chronic diseases. Although most disparities research focuses on person-level socioeconomic-status, mounting evidence suggest that chronic diseases also pattern by the demographic characteristics of neighborhoods. Yet the biological mechanisms underlying these associations are poorly understood. There is increasing recognition that chronic diseases share common pathogenic features, some of which involve alterations in the composition, diversity, and functioning of the gut microbiota. This study examined whether socioeconomic-status was associated with alpha-diversity of the colonic microbiota. Forty-four healthy adults underwent un-prepped sigmoidoscopy, during which mucosal biopsies and fecal samples were collected. Subjects' zip codes were geocoded, and census data was used to form a composite indicator of neighborhood socioeconomic-status, reflecting household income, educational attainment, employment status, and home value. In unadjusted analyses, neighborhood socioeconomic-status explained 12-18 percent of the variability in alpha-diversity of colonic microbiota. The direction of these associations was positive, meaning that as neighborhood socioeconomic-status increased, so did alpha-diversity of both the colonic sigmoid mucosa and fecal microbiota. The strength of these associations persisted when models were expanded to include covariates reflecting potential demographic (age, gender, race/ethnicity) and lifestyle (adiposity, alcohol use, smoking) confounds. In these models neighborhood socioeconomic-status continued to explain 11-22 percent of the variability in diversity indicators. Further analyses suggested these patterns reflected socioeconomic variations in evenness, but not richness, of microbial communities residing in the sigmoid. We also found indications that residence in neighborhoods of higher socioeconomic-status was associated with a greater abundance of Bacteroides and a lower abundance of Prevotella, suggesting that diet potentially underlies differences in microbiota composition. These findings suggest the presence of socioeconomic variations in colonic microbiota diversity. Future research should explore whether these variations contribute to disparities in chronic disease outcomes.

Experiment 1


Needs review

Curated date: 2022/06/11

Curator: Kaluifeanyi101

Revision editor(s): Kaluifeanyi101, Peace Sandy, Victoria

Subjects

Location of subjects
United States of America
Host species Species from which microbiome was sampled. Contact us to have more species added.
Homo sapiens
Body site Anatomical site where microbial samples were extracted from according to the Uber Anatomy Ontology
Feces Cow dung,Cow pat,Droppings,Dung,Excrement,Excreta,Faeces,Fecal material,Fecal matter,Fewmet,Frass,Guano,Matières fécales@fr,Merde@fr,Ordure,Partie de la merde@fr,Piece of shit,Porción de mierda@es,Portion of dung,Portion of excrement,Portion of faeces,Portion of fecal material,Portion of fecal matter,Portion of feces,Portion of guano,Portion of scat,Portionem cacas,Scat,Spoor,Spraint,Stool,Teil der fäkalien@de,Feces,feces
Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology
Socioeconomic status class,Socioeconomic status,socioeconomic status,socioeconomic factors
Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies
High SES
Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies
Low SES
Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group
44 healthy participants from low-income neighborhoods with a median annual income of $20,100 and a 35% unemployment rate and neighborhoods at the high end, with a median income of $129,570 and an unemployment rate under 5%). (Income level as a continuous variable.)
Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group
44
Antibiotics exclusion Number of days without antibiotics usage (if applicable) and other antibiotics-related criteria used to exclude participants (if any)
3 months

Lab analysis

Sequencing type
16S
16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene
Not specified
Sequencing platform Manufacturer and experimental platform used for quantifying microbial abundance
Roche454

Statistical Analysis

Data transformation Data transformation applied to microbial abundance measurements prior to differential abundance testing (if any).
raw counts
Statistical test
Linear Regression
Spearman Correlation
Significance threshold p-value or FDR threshold used for differential abundance testing (if any)
0.05
Confounders controlled for Confounding factors that have been accounted for by stratification or model adjustment
age, alcohol drinking, body mass index, race, sex, smoking status

Alpha Diversity

Shannon Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species richness
decreased

Signature 1

Needs review

Curated date: 2022/06/11

Curator: Kaluifeanyi101

Revision editor(s): Kaluifeanyi101

Source: FIGURE 3

Description: Scatter-plot of neighborhood SES and bacterial genera. Figs depict associations between neighborhood SES and Prevotella to Bacteroides ratio (upper panel), as well as the relative abundance of Prevotella (middle panel) and Bacteroides (lower panel). Specimens are biopsies excised from sigmoid mucosa.

Abundance in Group 1: increased abundance in Low SES

NCBI Quality ControlLinks
Prevotella

Revision editor(s): Kaluifeanyi101

Signature 2

Needs review

Curated date: 2022/06/11

Curator: Kaluifeanyi101

Revision editor(s): Kaluifeanyi101

Source: FIGURE 3

Description: Scatter-plot of neighborhood SES and bacterial genera. Figs depict associations between neighborhood SES and Prevotella to Bacteroides ratio (upper panel), as well as the relative abundance of Prevotella (middle panel) and Bacteroides (lower panel). Specimens are biopsies excised from sigmoid mucosa.

Abundance in Group 1: decreased abundance in Low SES

NCBI Quality ControlLinks
Bacteroides

Revision editor(s): Kaluifeanyi101