Journal
PSYCHOSOMATIC MEDICINE
Volume 68, Issue 3, Pages 362-368Publisher
LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS
DOI: 10.1097/01.psy.0000221360.94700.16
Keywords
discrimination; chronic stress; atherosclerosis; coronary calcium; African-American; women
Categories
Funding
- NHLBI NIH HHS [HL065591, K23 HL127251, HL065581] Funding Source: Medline
- NIA NIH HHS [AG012505, AG012495, AG012531, AG012553, AG012539, AG012554, AG012535, AG012546] Funding Source: Medline
- NINR NIH HHS [NR004061] Funding Source: Medline
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Background: Emerging evidence suggests that exposure to discrimination may be associated with atherosclerosis in African-American women, although research in this area focused on short-term rather than chronic exposure to discriminatory events. Methods: We examined the relationship between chronic exposure to multiple types of discrimination (self-reported and averaged over 5 years) and coronary artery calcification (CAC) in a sample of 181 middle-aged African-American women. Discrimination was assessed at each time point, and the presence/absence of CAC was assessed at the fifth annual follow-up examination by electron beam tomography. We hypothesized that chronic discrimination would be more strongly associated with CAC than recent discrimination and that racial/ethnic discrimination would be more strongly associated with CAC than other types of discrimination. Results: Chronic exposure to discrimination was significantly associated with the presence of CAC in unadjusted logistic regression analyses (p =.007) and after adjustment for demographics (p =.01), standard cardiovascular risk factors (p =.02), and Body Mass Index (BMI) (p =.05). In contrast, recent discrimination was only marginally associated with the presence of CAC in both unadjusted (p =.06) and fully adjusted logistic regression models (p =.08). Persistent exposure to racial/ethnic discrimination was not more strongly associated with CAC compared with other types of discrimination in either unadjusted or adjusted models. Conclusion: Chronic exposure to discrimination may be an important risk factor for early coronary calcification in African-American women. This association appears to be driven by exposure to discrimination from multiple sources, rather than exposure to racial/ethnic discrimination alone.
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