Racial/ethnic disparities in hypertension prevalence: Reconsidering the role of chronic stress

M.T. Hicken, Hyungsuk Lee, J. Morenoff, J.S. House and D.R. Williams

American Journal of Public Health, 2014, vol. 104, issue 1, 117-123

Abstract: Objectives: We investigated the association between anticipatory stress, also known as racism-related vigilance, and hypertension prevalence in Black, Hispanic, and White adults. Methods: We used data from the Chicago Community Adult Health Study, a population-representative sample of adults (n = 3105) surveyed in 2001 to 2003, to regress hypertension prevalence on the interaction between race/ethnicity and vigilance in logit models. Results: Blacks reported the highest vigilance levels. For Blacks, each unit increase in vigilance (range= 0-12) was associated with a 4% increase in the odds of hypertension (odds ratio [OR] = 1.04; 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.00, 1.09). Hispanics showed a similar but nonsignificant association (OR =1.05; 95% CI= 0.99, 1.12), and Whites showed no association (OR = 0.95; 95% CI= 0.87, 1.03). Conclusions: Vigilance may represent an important and unique source of chronic stress that contributes to the well-documented higher prevalence of hypertension among Blacks than Whites; it is a possible contributor to hypertension among Hispanics but not Whites.

Keywords: adult; African American; Caucasian; chronic disease; complication; cross-sectional study; ethnology; female; Hispanic; human; hypertension; interview; male; mental stress; prevalence; statistics and numerical data; United States; article; ethnology; hypertension; mental stress; statistics; United States, Adult; African Americans; Chicago; Chronic Disease; Cross-Sectional Studies; European Continental Ancestry Group; Female; Hispanic Americans; Humans; Hypertension; Interviews as Topic; Male; Prevalence; Stress, Psychological, Adult; African Americans; Chicago; Chronic Disease; Cross-Sectional Studies; European Continental Ancestry Group; Female; Hispanic Americans; Humans; Hypertension; Interviews as Topic; Male; Prevalence; Stress, Psychological (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2013.301395_2

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2013.301395

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