Miriam E Van Dyke1, Nicole Kau'i Baumhofer, Natalie Slopen, Mahasin S Mujahid, Cheryl R Clark, David R Williams, Tené T Lewis. 1. From the Department of Epidemiology (Van Dyke, Lewis), Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia; Department of Native Hawaiian Health (Baumhofer), John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii; Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics (Slopen), School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland; Division of Epidemiology (Mujahid), School of Public Health, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California; and Brigham and Women's Hospital (Clark), Harvard Medical School, and Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Williams), Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine associations among race, the accumulation of multiple forms of discriminatory experiences (i.e., "pervasive discrimination"), and allostatic load (AL) in African Americans and whites in midlife. METHODS: Using data collected in 2004 to 2006 from 226 African American and 978 white adults (57% female; mean [SD] age = 54.7 [0.11] years) in the Midlife in the United States II Biomarker Project, a pervasive discrimination score was created by combining three discrimination scales, and an AL score was created based on 24 biomarkers representing seven physiological systems. Linear regression models were conducted to examine the association between pervasive discrimination and AL, adjusting for demographics and medical, behavioral, and personality covariates. A race by pervasive discrimination interaction was also examined to determine whether associations varied by race. RESULTS: African Americans had higher pervasive discrimination and AL scores than did whites. In models adjusted for demographics, socioeconomic status, medications, health behaviors, neuroticism, and negative affect, a pervasive discrimination score of 2 versus 0 was associated with a greater AL score (b = 0.30, SE = 0.07, p < .001). Although associations seemed to be stronger among African Americans as compared with whites, associations did not statistically differ by race. CONCLUSIONS: More pervasive discrimination was related to greater multisystemic physiological dysregulation in a cohort of African American and white adults. Measuring discrimination by combining multiple forms of discriminatory experiences may be important for studying the health effects of discrimination.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine associations among race, the accumulation of multiple forms of discriminatory experiences (i.e., "pervasive discrimination"), and allostatic load (AL) in African Americans and whites in midlife. METHODS: Using data collected in 2004 to 2006 from 226 African American and 978 white adults (57% female; mean [SD] age = 54.7 [0.11] years) in the Midlife in the United States II Biomarker Project, a pervasive discrimination score was created by combining three discrimination scales, and an AL score was created based on 24 biomarkers representing seven physiological systems. Linear regression models were conducted to examine the association between pervasive discrimination and AL, adjusting for demographics and medical, behavioral, and personality covariates. A race by pervasive discrimination interaction was also examined to determine whether associations varied by race. RESULTS: African Americans had higher pervasive discrimination and AL scores than did whites. In models adjusted for demographics, socioeconomic status, medications, health behaviors, neuroticism, and negative affect, a pervasive discrimination score of 2 versus 0 was associated with a greater AL score (b = 0.30, SE = 0.07, p < .001). Although associations seemed to be stronger among African Americans as compared with whites, associations did not statistically differ by race. CONCLUSIONS: More pervasive discrimination was related to greater multisystemic physiological dysregulation in a cohort of African American and white adults. Measuring discrimination by combining multiple forms of discriminatory experiences may be important for studying the health effects of discrimination.
Authors: DeMarc A Hickson; Tené T Lewis; Jiankang Liu; David L Mount; Sinead N Younge; William C Jenkins; Daniel F Sarpong; David R Williams Journal: Ann Behav Med Date: 2012-02
Authors: Patricia F Coogan; Jeffrey Yu; George T O'Connor; Timothy A Brown; Yvette C Cozier; Julie R Palmer; Lynn Rosenberg Journal: Chest Date: 2014-03-01 Impact factor: 9.410
Authors: Dawn M Upchurch; Judith Stein; Gail A Greendale; Laura Chyu; Chi-Hong Tseng; Mei-Hua Huang; Tené T Lewis; Howard M Kravitz; Teresa Seeman Journal: Psychosom Med Date: 2015-05 Impact factor: 4.312
Authors: Adolfo G Cuevas; Nadia N Abuelezam; Sze Wan Celine Chan; Keri Carvalho; Cecilia Flores; Kaipeng Wang; Josiemer Mattei; Katherine L Tucker; Luis M Falcon Journal: Psychosom Med Date: 2021-09-01 Impact factor: 3.864
Authors: Claire M Bird; E Kate Webb; Andrew T Schramm; Lucas Torres; Christine Larson; Terri A deRoon-Cassini Journal: J Trauma Stress Date: 2021-03-14
Authors: Matthew E Dupre; Heather R Farmer; Hanzhang Xu; Ann Marie Navar; Michael G Nanna; Linda K George; Eric D Peterson Journal: Psychosom Med Date: 2021 Nov-Dec 01 Impact factor: 4.312
Authors: Jeanne S Mandelblatt; Tim A Ahles; Marc E Lippman; Claudine Isaacs; Lucile Adams-Campbell; Andrew J Saykin; Harvey J Cohen; Judith Carroll Journal: JAMA Oncol Date: 2021-11-01 Impact factor: 31.777