Journal article
Racial discrimination and allostatic load among First Nations Australians: A nationally representative cross-sectional study
BMC Public Health, Vol.20(1), Article 1881
2020
Abstract
Background
Increased allostatic load is linked with racial discrimination exposure, providing a mechanism for the biological embedding of racism as a psychosocial stressor. We undertook an examination of how racial discrimination interacts with socioecological, environmental, and health conditions to affect multisystem dysregulation in a First Nations population.
Methods
We conducted latent class analysis (LCA) using indicators of life stress, socioeconomic background, and physical and mental health from a nationally representative sample of Australian Aboriginal adults (N = 2056). We used LCA with distal outcomes to estimate the effect of the latent class variable on our derived allostatic load index and conducted a stratified analysis to test whether allostatic load varied based on exposure to racial discrimination across latent classes.
Results
Our psychosocial, environmental, and health measures informed a four-class structure; ‘Low risk’, ‘Challenged but healthy’, ‘Mental health risk’ and ‘Multiple challenges’. Mean allostatic load was highest in ‘Multiple challenges’ compared to all other classes, both in those exposed (4.5; 95% CI: 3.9, 5.0) and not exposed (3.9; 95% CI: 3.7, 4.2) to racial discrimination. Allostatic load was significantly higher for those with exposure to racial discrimination in the ‘Multiple challenges’ class (t = 1.74, p = .04) and significantly lower in the ‘Mental health risk’ class (t = − 1.67, p = .05).
Conclusions
Racial discrimination may not always modify physiological vulnerability to disease. Social and economic contexts must be considered when addressing the impact of racism, with a focus on individuals and sub-populations experiencing co-occurring life challenges.
Details
- Title
- Racial discrimination and allostatic load among First Nations Australians: A nationally representative cross-sectional study
- Authors/Creators
- L. Cave (Author/Creator) - The Kids Research Institute AustraliaM.N. Cooper (Author/Creator)S.R. Zubrick (Author/Creator) - The Kids Research Institute AustraliaC.C.J. Shepherd (Author/Creator) - Murdoch University
- Publication Details
- BMC Public Health, Vol.20(1), Article 1881
- Publisher
- BioMed Central Ltd.
- Identifiers
- 991005542160707891
- Copyright
- © 2020 The Authors
- Murdoch Affiliation
- Ngangk Yira Aboriginal Health Research Centre
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
Metrics
49 File views/ downloads
90 Record Views
InCites Highlights
These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Citation topics
- 1 Clinical & Life Sciences
- 1.156 Healthcare Policy
- 1.156.436 Health Inequities
- Web Of Science research areas
- Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
- ESI research areas
- Social Sciences, general