Fatigue varies by social class in african americans but not caucasian americans

Abstract

Socioeconomic status explains many ethnic disparities in health; however, mechanisms are hard to identify. Fatigue-a frequent complaint in patients and normals-is associated with poorer quality of life. We wondered if ethnicity and social class interact to explain fatigue. A total of 40 African Americans (AAs) and 64 Caucasian Americans (CAs) completed short forms of the Profile of Mood States (POMS-SF) and Multidimensional Fatigue Symptom Inventory (MFSI-SF). Participants were divided into high-middle and low social class groups (as per Hollingshead, 1958a). After controlling for gender, body mass index, depressive symptoms, and response bias, ethnicity and social class interacted for POMS-SF fatigue. AAs in the high-middle classes reported more fatigue than AAs in the low classes and CAs in the high-middle classes. Fatigue did not differ by class for CAs nor by ethnicity in the lower classes. Similar findings emerged for MFSI-SF general fatigue. Social class is important for understanding fatigue in AAs but not CAs.

Influence of Race and Socioeconomic Status on Sleep: Pittsburgh SleepSCORE Project

“…Based on past reports, we hypothesized that both Blacks and individuals of lower SES would have shorter and poorer sleep, as characterized by shorter sleep duration, poorer sleep continuity, less Stage 3 to 4 sleep, and more complaints on self-report measures. In addition, we explored whether an interaction exists between race and SES in association with sleep, as has been the case with a variety of other health outcomes (23,24).…”

Validity of the multidimensional fatigue symptom inventory-short form in an African-American community-based sample

“…Additionally, only one study has assessed the associations among SES, race/ethnicity, and fatigue using both a unidimensional measure of fatigue and the MFSI-SF. The study found that while there were no differences in unidimensional fatigue or the MFSI-SF general fatigue subscale as a function of social class among Whites, middle-to-high SES African Americans reported significantly more fatigue than their White counterparts and than low SES African Americans (Bardwell et al 2006). No racial/ethnic or SES differences were noted for the other MFSI-SF subscales (Bardwell et al 2006).…”

“…The study found that while there were no differences in unidimensional fatigue or the MFSI-SF general fatigue subscale as a function of social class among Whites, middle-to-high SES African Americans reported significantly more fatigue than their White counterparts and than low SES African Americans (Bardwell et al 2006). No racial/ethnic or SES differences were noted for the other MFSI-SF subscales (Bardwell et al 2006). Overall, additional research is needed to better understand demographic variations in the fatigue experience of African American community members.…”

“…Multidimensional assessment of fatigue can help clarify some of the ambiguity associated with unidimensional assessment. However, multidimensional fatigue in community-based African Americans remains poorly understood due to scarce research (Bardwell et al 2006). A second limitation of this literature is highlighted by Dinos et al's caution that studies in the systematic review “did not provide evidence on the cross-cultural validity of the instruments used, which could have impacted on the prevalence rates reported” (2009, 1568).…”

“…Research suggests that age, gender, and socioeconomic status (SES) have significant associations with fatigue in community-based samples. However, the data on the directions of these associations are mixed and inconclusive because findings vary depending on where the study was conducted (Europe vs. North America), sample characteristics, and the use of unidimensional vs. multidimensional measures of fatigue (e.g., Pawlikowska et al 1994; Song et al 1999; Watt et al 2000; Schwarz et al 2003; Bardwell et al 2006; Resnick et al 2006). To our knowledge, only one study has assessed the associations among age, gender, and fatigue in a community-based sample of African Americans, using a unidimensional measure (Song et al 2002).…”