scholarly journals Association between perceived racial discrimination and hypertension: findings from the ELSA-Brasil study

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrícia Miranda Mendes ◽  
Aline Araújo Nobre ◽  
Rosane Härter Griep ◽  
Joanna Miguez Nery Guimarães ◽  
Leidjaira Lopes Juvanhol ◽  
...  

“Pardos” and blacks in Brazil and blacks in the USA are at greater risk of developing arterial hypertension than whites, and the causes of this inequality are still little understood. Psychosocial and contextual factors, including racial discrimination, are indicated as conditions associated with this inequality. The aim of this study was to identify the association between perceived racial discrimination and hypertension. The study evaluated 14,012 workers from the ELSA-Brazil baseline population. Perceived discrimination was measured by the Lifetime Major Events Scale, adapted to Portuguese. Classification by race/color followed the categories proposed by Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). Hypertension was defined by standard criteria. The association between the compound variable - race/racial discrimination - and hypertension was estimated by Poisson regression with robust variance and stratified by the categories of body mass index (BMI) and sex. Choosing white women as the reference group, in the BMI < 25kg/m2 stratum, “pardo” women showed adjusted OR for arterial hypertension of 1.98 (95%CI: 1.17-3.36) and 1.3 (95%CI: 1.13-1.65), respectively, whether or not they experienced racial discrimination. For black women, ORs were 1.9 (95%CI: 1.42-2.62) and 1.72 (95%CI: 1.36-2.18), respectively, for the same categories. Among women with BMI > 25kg/m2 and men in any BMI category, no effect of racial discrimination was identified. Despite the differences in point estimates of prevalence of hypertension between “pardo” women who reported and those who did not report discrimination, our results are insufficient to assert that an association exists between racial discrimination and hypertension.

Circulation ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 137 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ganga S Bey ◽  
Sharina D Person ◽  
Catarina I Kiefe

Introduction: Variation in exposure to discrimination has been proposed as a contributor to disparities in cardiovascular disease (CVD) among black and white women and men in the U.S. Yet, evidence is conflicting, perhaps due to insufficiently studied race-sex and geographical differences in the pathogenicity of discrimination. We hypothesized that the prevalence of perceived racial discrimination in a variety of settings differs by race, sex, and geographic location. Methods: We used data from CARDIA, a population-based cohort of black and white adults recruited in Birmingham, AL; Chicago, IL; Minneapolis, MN, and Oakland, CA in 1985-6 (year 0). Racial discrimination perceived in several scenarios was assessed using the Lifetime Discrimination Scale at years 7, 15, and 20 (2005-6). We assessed the prevalence at each of these exams and in each scenario, stratified by race-sex group. Results: Prevalence of reported discrimination did not differ markedly over time; we report on year 7 only (n=4,025, figure), with qualitatively similar findings at the other years. Reported discrimination in ≥2 scenarios ranged from 52% in Birmingham to 70% in Minneapolis among black women; among black men, from 65% in Birmingham and 75% in Minneapolis and Oakland. This prevalence was <20% among white women and men in every city. Within all groups, discrimination on the street or in a public setting was most prevalent (p<0.001) and least prevalent in receiving medical care (p<0.001). The proportion of black men reporting discrimination by the police or courts was substantially greater than the other three race-sex groups in each of the four cities (all p<0.001). Conclusions: We found variation in the prevalence of reported racial discrimination across race, sex, and geography. Differences in the experience of discrimination may lead to differences in the health-damaging effects of exposure and partially explain inconsistencies in the evidence of discrimination as a cause of disparities in cardiovascular disease between black and white women and men.


SLEEP ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Traci N Bethea ◽  
Eric S Zhou ◽  
Eva S Schernhammer ◽  
Nelsy Castro-Webb ◽  
Yvette C Cozier ◽  
...  

Abstract Study Objective To assess whether perceived racial discrimination is associated with insomnia among Black women. Methods Data on everyday and lifetime racism and insomnia symptoms were collected from questionnaires administered in the Black Women’s Health Study, an ongoing prospective cohort of Black women recruited in 1995 from across the United States. In 2009, participants completed five questions on the frequency of discriminatory practices in daily life (everyday racism) and six questions on ever experiencing unfair treatment in key institutional contexts (lifetime racism). In 2015, the Insomnia Severity Index was used to assess insomnia symptoms. We estimated odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for associations of racism with insomnia, using multivariable logistic regression models adjusted for potential confounders. Results The 26 139 participants in the analytic sample were 40–90 years old (median = 57 years, SD = 9.6 years). Higher levels of everyday racism and lifetime racism were positively associated with subthreshold (ptrend &lt; .01) and clinical insomnia (ptrend &lt; .01). Results remained unchanged after further adjustment for sleep duration and shift work. Conclusions Higher levels of perceived racism were associated with increased odds of insomnia among middle-aged and elderly Black women. Thus, perceived racism may contribute to multiple racial health disparities resulting from insomnia. Helping minority populations cope with their experiences of discrimination may decrease the significant public health impact of sleep disruption and subsequent diagnoses.


2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 287-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles P. Mouton ◽  
Pamela L. Carter-Nolan ◽  
Kepher H. Makambi ◽  
Teletia R. Taylor ◽  
Julie R. Palmer ◽  
...  

ILR Review ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 540-555 ◽  
Author(s):  
James S. Cunningham ◽  
Nadja Zalokar

This paper uses Census data on women's wages and occupations from the years 1940–80 to examine long-term trends in black women's relative economic status. The paper links black women's increased relative wages after 1940 to their entry, especially after 1960, into occupations and industries in which they were previously unrepresented, most notably factory jobs and clerical work. The authors find little evidence that convergence in the characteristics of black and white women (increasingly similar education, for example) is responsible for black women's increased relative wages and occupational status and conclude that black women's improved economic status after 1940 was largely due to decreases in racial discrimination by occupation and industry. They also find that in the South racial discrimination had greater adverse effects on black women, and began to decrease later, than in the rest of the country.


Crisis ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 268-272
Author(s):  
Sean Cross ◽  
Dinesh Bhugra ◽  
Paul I. Dargan ◽  
David M. Wood ◽  
Shaun L. Greene ◽  
...  

Background: Self-poisoning (overdose) is the commonest form of self-harm cases presenting to acute secondary care services in the UK, where there has been limited investigation of self-harm in black and minority ethnic communities. London has the UK’s most ethnically diverse areas but presents challenges in resident-based data collection due to the large number of hospitals. Aims: To investigate the rates and characteristics of self-poisoning presentations in two central London boroughs. Method: All incident cases of self-poisoning presentations of residents of Lambeth and Southwark were identified over a 12-month period through comprehensive acute and mental health trust data collection systems at multiple hospitals. Analysis was done using STATA 12.1. Results: A rate of 121.4/100,000 was recorded across a population of more than half a million residents. Women exceeded men in all measured ethnic groups. Black women presented 1.5 times more than white women. Gender ratios within ethnicities were marked. Among those aged younger than 24 years, black women were almost 7 times more likely to present than black men were. Conclusion: Self-poisoning is the commonest form of self-harm presentation to UK hospitals but population-based rates are rare. These results have implications for formulating and managing risk in clinical services for both minority ethnic women and men.


2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (5) ◽  
pp. 509-527
Author(s):  
Philip Q. Yang

This study investigates the effects of race and gender on perceived employment discrimination using the 2016 General Social Survey that provides new data on perceived employment discrimination that aligns more closely with the legal definition of employment discrimination. It is found that 19% of the American adults self-reported the experience of employment discrimination in job application, pay increase, or promotion in the past 5 years. The results of logistic regression analysis show that either controlling or not controlling for other factors, Blacks were much more likely to perceive being discriminated in employment than Whites, but other races were not significantly different from Whites in perceived employment discrimination after holding other variables constant. While gender did not have a significant independent effect on perceived job discrimination, it did interact with race to influence perceived job discrimination. Regardless of race, women were somewhat less likely than men to perceive job discrimination, but Black women were significantly even less likely than White women to self-report job discrimination, and Black men were much more likely to self-report employment discrimination than White men. These findings have implications for combating employment discrimination and addressing social inequalities.


2021 ◽  
pp. 088626052199083
Author(s):  
Aaron J. Kivisto ◽  
Samantha Mills ◽  
Lisa S. Elwood

Pregnancy-associated femicide accounts for a mortality burden at least as high as any of the leading specific obstetric causes of maternal mortality, and intimate partners are the most common perpetrators of these homicides. This study examined pregnancy-associated and non-pregnancy-associated intimate partner homicide (IPH) victimization among racial/ethnic minority women relative to their non-minority counterparts using several sources of state-level data from 2003 through 2017. Data regarding partner homicide victimization came from the National Violent Death Reporting System, natality data were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, and relevant sociodemographic information was obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau. Findings indicated that pregnancy and racial/ethnic minority status were each associated with increased risk for partner homicide victimization. Although rates of non-pregnancy-associated IPH victimization were similar between Black and White women, significant differences emerged when limited to pregnancy-associated IPH such that Black women evidenced pregnancy-associated IPH rates more than threefold higher than that observed among White and Hispanic women. Relatedly, the largest intraracial discrepancies between pregnant and non-pregnant women emerged among Black women, who experienced pregnancy-associated IPH victimization at a rate 8.1 times greater than their non-pregnant peers. These findings indicate that the racial disparities in IPH victimization in the United States observed in prior research might be driven primarily by the pronounced differences among the pregnant subset of these populations.


2021 ◽  
pp. 003335492098414
Author(s):  
Erika L. Thompson ◽  
Tracey E. Barnett ◽  
Dana M. Litt ◽  
Erica C. Spears ◽  
Melissa A. Lewis

Objective In the United States, guidelines indicate all pregnant women should be screened for and counseled on alcohol use to prevent adverse perinatal outcomes due to alcohol consumption. The objective of this study was to describe sociodemographic factors associated with receipt of prenatal alcohol counseling and perinatal alcohol use among US women. Methods State health departments collected data for the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System Phase 7 during 2012-2015, and we restricted the sample to a complete case analysis (N = 135 111). The 3 dichotomous outcomes were preconception alcohol use (3 months before pregnancy), prenatal alcohol use (during last 3 months of pregnancy), and prenatal alcohol counseling. Predictor variables were age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, education, marital status, health insurance status, and previous live births. We estimated survey-weighted logistic regression models for each outcome. Results Half (56.0%) of pregnant women reported preconception alcohol use, 70.5% received prenatal alcohol counseling, and 7.7% reported prenatal alcohol use during the last 3 months of pregnancy. Black women were significantly less likely than White women (odds ratio [OR] = 0.49; 95% CI, 0.46-0.52) and Hispanic women were significantly less likely than non-Hispanic women (OR = 0.62; 95% CI, 0.58-0.66) to report preconception alcohol use. We found similar patterns for prenatal alcohol use among Black women. Black women were significantly more likely than White women (OR = 1.66; 95% CI, 1.55-1.77) and Hispanic women were significantly more likely than non-Hispanic women (OR = 1.51; 95% CI, 1.40-1.61) to receive prenatal alcohol counseling. We found similar patterns for age, education, and health insurance status. Conclusion Disparities in alcohol counseling occurred despite the national recommendation for universal screening and counseling prenatally. Continued integration of universal screening for alcohol use during pregnancy is needed.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document