Dataset Information

Racial Non-equivalence of Socioeconomic Status and Self-rated Health among African Americans and Whites.

ABSTRACT: Racial health inequities are not fully explained by socioeconomic status (SES) measures like education, income and wealth. The largest inequities are observed among African American and white college graduates suggesting that African Americans do not receive the same health benefits of education. African Americans do not receive the same income and wealth returns of college education as their white counterparts indicating a racial non-equivalence of SES that may affect health inequities. The aim of this study is to determine whether racial non-equivalence of SES mediates race inequities in self-rated health by education and sex. Using data from the 2007-2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in the United States, the mediation of the associations between race and self-rated health through household income ?400% federal poverty line, homeownership, and investment income were assessed among college graduates and non-college graduates by sex. Indirect associations were observed among college graduate women (odds = 0.08, standard error (s.e.) = 0.03), and non-college graduate men (odds = 0.14, s.e. = 0.02) and women (odds = 0.06, s.e. = 0.02). Direct associations between race and self-rated health remained after accounting for household income and wealth indicators suggesting that race differences in income and wealth partially mediate racial inequities in self-rated health. This study demonstrates that the racial non-equivalence of SES has implications for health inequities, but the magnitude of indirect associations varied by sex. Other factors like discrimination, health pessimism and segregation should be considered in light of the racial non-equivalence of SES and racial inequities in self-rated health.

SUBMITTER: Bell CN

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7049651 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Racial Non-equivalence of Socioeconomic Status and Self-rated Health among African Americans and Whites.

Bell Caryn N CN Sacks Tina K TK Thomas Tobin Courtney S CS Thorpe Roland J RJ

SSM - population health 20200221

Racial health inequities are not fully explained by socioeconomic status (SES) measures like education, income and wealth. The largest inequities are observed among African American and white college graduates suggesting that African Americans do not receive the same health benefits of education. African Americans do not receive the same income and wealth returns of college education as their white counterparts indicating a racial non-equivalence of SES that may affect health inequities. The aim ...[more]

PMID: 32140544

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Project description:BackgroundThe correlation between low socioeconomic status (SES) and poor health outcome or higher risk of disease has been consistently reported by many epidemiological studies across various race/ancestry groups. However, the biological mechanisms linking low SES to disease and/or disease risk factors are not well understood and remain relatively under-studied. The analysis of the blood transcriptome is a promising window for elucidating how social and environmental factors influence the molecular networks governing health and disease. To further define the mechanistic pathways between social determinants and health, this study examined the impact of SES on the blood transcriptome in a sample of African-Americans.MethodsAn integrative approach leveraging three complementary methods (Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis, Random Forest and Differential Expression) was adopted to identify the most predictive and robust transcriptome pathways associated with SES. We analyzed the expression of 15079 genes (RNA-seq) from whole blood across 36 samples.ResultsThe results revealed a cluster of 141 co-expressed genes over-expressed in the low SES group. Three pro-inflammatory pathways (IL-8 Signaling, NF-?B Signaling and Dendritic Cell Maturation) are activated in this module and over-expressed in low SES. Random Forest analysis revealed 55 of the 141 genes that, collectively, predict SES with an area under the curve of 0.85. One third of the 141 genes are significantly over-expressed in the low SES group.ConclusionLower SES has consistently been linked to many social and environmental conditions acting as stressors and known to be correlated with vulnerability to chronic illnesses (e.g. asthma, diabetes) associated with a chronic inflammatory state. Our unbiased analysis of the blood transcriptome in African-Americans revealed evidence of a robust molecular signature of increased inflammation associated with low SES. The results provide a plausible link between the social factors and chronic inflammation.

Dataset Information

Racial Non-equivalence of Socioeconomic Status and Self-rated Health among African Americans and Whites.

Publications

Racial Non-equivalence of Socioeconomic Status and Self-rated Health among African Americans and Whites.

Similar Datasets

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