The effects of social adversity, discrimination, and health risk behaviors on the accelerated aging of African Americans: Further support for the weathering hypothesis

The weathering hypothesis views the elevated rates of illness, disability, and mortality seen among Black Americans as a physiological response to the structural barriers, material hardships, and identity threats that comprise the Black experience. While granting that lifestyle may have some signifi...

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Veröffentlicht in:Social science & medicine (1982) Jg. 282; S. 113169
Hauptverfasser: Simons, Ronald L., Lei, Man-Kit, Klopack, Eric, Beach, Steven R.H., Gibbons, Frederick X., Philibert, Robert A.
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: England Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2021
Pergamon Press Inc
Schlagworte:
Accelerated aging
Adversity
African Americans
Age of onset
Aging
Alcohol use
Anatomical systems
Diet
Disability
Discrimination
Drinking behavior
Ethnic identity
Fairness
Gender
GrimAge
Health behavior
Health disparities
Health risk assessment
Health risks
Illnesses
Lifestyles
Marital status
Marriage
Medicine
Mortality rates
Neighborhoods
Race
Racial differences
Racial discrimination
Racism
Risk behavior
Social conditions
Social conditions & trends
Social programs
Socioeconomic adversity
Stress
Systemic racism
Variables
Weathering
African Americans
Weathering
Socioeconomic adversity
Accelerated aging
Racial discrimination
GrimAge
ISSN:0277-9536, 1873-5347, 1873-5347
Online-Zugang:Volltext
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Zusammenfassung:The weathering hypothesis views the elevated rates of illness, disability, and mortality seen among Black Americans as a physiological response to the structural barriers, material hardships, and identity threats that comprise the Black experience. While granting that lifestyle may have some significance, the fundamental explanation for heath inequalities is seen as race-related stressors that accelerate biological aging. The present study tests the weathering hypothesis by examining the impact on accelerated aging of four types of adversity frequently experienced by Black Americans. Further, we investigate whether health risk behaviors mediate the effect of these conditions. Our analyses utilize data from 494 middle-age, African American men and women participating in the Family and Community Healthy Study. The newly developed GrimAge index of accelerated aging is used as an indicator of weathering. Education, income, neighborhood disadvantage, and discrimination serve as the independent variables. Three health risk behaviors - diet, exercise, and alcohol consumption - are included as potential mediators of the four types of adversity. Marital status and gender are entered as controls. Multivariate analyses indicated that the four types of adversity predicted acceleration whereas marriage predicted deceleration in speed of aging. Males showed greater accelerated aging than females, but there was no evidence that gender conditioned the effect of adversity. The health risk behaviors were unrelated to accelerated aging and did not mediate the effect of the stressors. Modern medicine's emphasis on life style as the primary explanation for race-based health disparities ignores the way race-related adversity rooted in structural and cultural conditions serves to accelerate biological decline, thereby increasing risk of early onset of illness and death. Importantly, these social conditions can only be addressed through social policies and programs that target institutional racism and promote economic equity. •Speed of aging was used as an indicator of weathering among Black Americans.•Speed of aging was assessed using the epigenetic index GrimAge.•Income, education, discrimination, and neighborhood predicted accelerated GrimAge.•Being married predicted decelerated biological aging.•The findings suggest a weathering effect where adversity fosters premature aging.
Bibliographie:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
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ISSN:0277-9536
1873-5347
1873-5347
DOI:10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113169