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Death by a Thousand Cuts: Stress Exposure and Black-White Disparities in Physiological Functioning in Late Life.
- Source :
-
The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences [J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci] 2020 Oct 16; Vol. 75 (9), pp. 1937-1950. - Publication Year :
- 2020
-
Abstract
- Objectives: This paper investigates Black-White differences in stress-including diverse measures of chronic, acute, discrimination-related, and cumulative stress exposure-and examines whether race differences in these stress measures mediate Black-White disparities in C-reactive protein (CRP) and metabolic dysregulation in later life.<br />Methods: Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) (2004-2012), this study uses stepwise ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models to examine the prospective associations between multiple stressors-including traumatic and stressful life events, financial strain, chronic stress, everyday and major life discrimination, and measures of cumulative stress burden-and CRP and metabolic dysregulation. Mediation analyses assessed the contribution of stress exposure to Black-White disparities in the outcomes.<br />Results: Blacks experienced more stress than Whites across domains of stress, and stress exposure was strongly associated with CRP and metabolic dysregulation. Race differences in financial strain, everyday and major life discrimination, and cumulative stress burden mediated Black-White gaps in the outcomes, with measures of cumulative stress burden mediating the greatest proportion of the racial disparities.<br />Discussion: The "thousand cuts" that Blacks experience from their cumulative stress exposure across domains of social life throughout the life course accelerate their physiological deterioration relative to Whites and play a critical role in racial health disparities at older ages.<br /> (© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)
- Subjects :
- Aged
C-Reactive Protein analysis
Cross-Cultural Comparison
Female
Financial Stress ethnology
Financial Stress psychology
Health Status Disparities
Humans
Life Change Events
Male
Social Determinants of Health ethnology
United States epidemiology
Black or African American
Black People psychology
Black People statistics & numerical data
Functional Status
Metabolic Diseases blood
Metabolic Diseases diagnosis
Metabolic Diseases ethnology
Metabolic Diseases psychology
Racism ethnology
Racism prevention & control
Racism psychology
Stress, Psychological ethnology
Stress, Psychological metabolism
White People psychology
White People statistics & numerical data
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1758-5368
- Volume :
- 75
- Issue :
- 9
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 31127845
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbz068