Low Educational Attainment, John Henryism, and Cardiovascular Reactivity to and Recovery From Personally Relevant Stress

Merritt, Marcellus M.; Bennett, Gary G.; Williams, Redford B.; Sollers, John J.; Thayer, Julian F.

doi:10.1097/01.psy.0000107909.74904.3d

Cited by 69 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Nonetheless, these findings are notable because ID and other associated conditions may lead to increased stigma and discrimination, exposures linked to negative health outcomes in models of stress-related diseases processes (Westbrook, Legge, & Pennay, 1993). Such models posit that exposure to these measures of stress increases the risk of hypertension and CHD in some marginalized populations (Merritt, Bennett, Williams, Sollers, & Thayer, 2004;Cohen, Tyrrell, & Smith, 1991;McEwen, 1998). Other models suggest these characteristics may lead to vulnerability to poor health over the life course through poorer educational achievements, lower income, and poorer health literacy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Factors Associated with Obesity and Coronary Heart Disease in People with Intellectual Disabilities

Sohler

Lubetkin

Levy

et al. 2009

Social Work in Health Care

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Advances in health care for people with intellectual disabilities (ID) that have resulted in increased longevity also force health care providers, researchers, and policymakers to question the adequacy of chronic disease management for the growing number of middle aged and elderly persons in this population. We report on sociodemographic and clinical factors associated with obesity, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and diabetes mellitus in an ethnically/racially diverse sample of people with ID in New York City. Administrative and chart review data were collected from a community-based specialty medical practice for people with intellectual disabilities. Adult subjects were included if they had an intellectual disability, lived in the community either independently or with relatives, received all of their planned, outpatient health care services though this practice, and had a primary care visit within the study period. One hundred twenty-six (43.0%) persons were obese, 58 (19.9%) had hypertension, 77 (26.5%) had hypercholesterolemia, and 13 (4.5%) had diabetes mellitus. Age, gender, and BMI (for the latter three conditions) were the most consistent risk factors. Intellectual functioning and behavioral problems were not associated with greater odds of these conditions. This study provides crucial information for improving community-based primary care for people with intellectual disabilities. Specifically, these findings highlight the importance of constructing innovative strategies to mitigate chronic disease risk factors in this population that involve community-based case management service providers who can help adults with ID and their families adopt needed lifestyle and behavior changes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Factors Associated with Obesity and Coronary Heart Disease in People with Intellectual Disabilities

Sohler

Lubetkin

Levy

et al. 2009

Social Work in Health Care

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“…A focus on AMI also supports a growing body of literature on allostatic load, which documents the physiologic consequences of repeated or chronic exposure to stress (Seeman et al, 2001a). The potential stress of engaging in high-effort coping in the face of significant adversity has been demonstrated in previous work (Adams et al, 1998;Merritt et al, 2004;Wright et al, 1996). As an example, in a laboratory-based study of cardiovascular reactivity to a racial stressor among 58 healthy Black men, Merritt and colleagues found that low education-high John Henryism men had significantly higher cardiovascular reactivity and a more prolonged return to baseline values than men scoring high on both education and John Henryism (Merritt et al, 2004).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Socioeconomic position, John Henryism, and incidence of acute myocardial infarction in Finnish men

Mujahid

James

Kaplan

et al. 2017

Social Science & Medicine

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a b s t r a c tPrevious cross-sectional studies examining whether John Henryism (JH), or high-effort coping with socioeconomic adversity, potentiates the inverse association between socioeconomic position (SEP) and cardiovascular health have focused mainly on hypertension in African Americans. We conducted the first longitudinal test of this hypothesis on incident acute myocardial infarction (AMI) using data from the Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study in Finland (N ¼ 1405 men, 42e60 years). We hypothesized that the expected inverse gradient between SEP and AMI risk would be stronger for men scoring high on JH than for those scoring low. John Henryism was measured by a Finnish version of the JH Scale for Active Coping. Four different measures of SEP were used: childhood SEP, education, income, and occupation. AMI hazard ratios (HR) by SEP and JH were estimated using COX proportional hazard models, before and after adjustment for study covariates. 205 cases of AMI occurred over a median of 14.9 years. Men employed in lower rank (farmer, blue-collar) occupations who scored high on JH had significantly higher age-adjusted risks of AMI than men in higher rank (white-collar) occupations (HR ¼ 3.14, 95% CI: 1.65e5.98 for blue collar; HR ¼ 2.33, 95% CI: 1.04e5.22 for farmers) who also scored high on JH. No socioeconomic differences in AMI were observed for men who scored low on JH (HR ¼ 1.36, 95% CI: 0.74 e2.47 for blue collar; HR ¼ 0.93, 95% CI: 0.59e1.48 for farmers; p ¼ 0.002 for the SEP Â JH interaction). These findings persisted after adjustment for sociodemographic, behavioral, and biological factors. Results for other SEP measures were in the same direction, but did not reach statistical significance. Repetitive high-effort coping with adversity (John Henryism) was independently associated with increased risk for AMI in Finnish men, underscoring the potential relevance of the John Henryism hypothesis to CVD outcomes other than hypertension and to populations other than African Americans.

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“…CHD risk is inversely related to SES, and we have found that impaired poststress recovery of BP and heart rate variability is more common in lower SES groups as defined by occupational grade (19). Relationships between impaired recovery and hostility (20,21) and John Henryism in black men (22) have also been described. The first purpose of the present analyses was to explore the psychosocial correlates of poor poststress systolic BP recovery in our middle-aged sample.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Psychosocial, Hemostatic, and Inflammatory Correlates of Delayed Poststress Blood Pressure Recovery

Steptoe

Marmot

2006

Psychosomatic Medicine

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Low Educational Attainment, John Henryism, and Cardiovascular Reactivity to and Recovery From Personally Relevant Stress

Abstract: John Henryism may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease among people with low education by increased cardiovascular reactivity and prolonged recovery to stress.

Cited by 69 publications

References 44 publications

Factors Associated with Obesity and Coronary Heart Disease in People with Intellectual Disabilities

Factors Associated with Obesity and Coronary Heart Disease in People with Intellectual Disabilities

Socioeconomic position, John Henryism, and incidence of acute myocardial infarction in Finnish men

Psychosocial, Hemostatic, and Inflammatory Correlates of Delayed Poststress Blood Pressure Recovery

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