Coding the Everyday Discrimination Scale: implications for exposure assessment and associations with hypertension and depression among a cross section of mid-life African American women.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Studies suggest that racial discrimination impacts health via biological dysregulation due to continual adaptation to chronic psychosocial stress. Therefore, quantifying chronicity is critical for operationalising the relevant aetiological exposure and hence maximising internal validity. Using one of the most common discrimination scales in the epidemiological literature, we develop a novel approach for more accurately assessing chronicity and compare it with conventional approaches to determine whether coding influences differential exposure classification and associations with hypertension and depression among African American women.

Methods

Data are from a socioeconomically diverse cross section of 208 mid-life African American women in Northern California (dat

SUBMITTER: Michaels E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7200149 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature