Racial discrimination and telomere shortening among African Americans: The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study.

Abstract

Objective-Telomeres are protective sequences of DNA capping the ends of chromosomes that shorten over time. Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is posited to reflect the replicative history of cells and general systemic aging of the organism. Chronic stress exposure leads to accelerated LTL shortening, which has been linked to increased susceptibility to and faster progression of agingrelated diseases. This study examined longitudinal associations between LTL and experiences of racial discrimination, a qualitatively unique source of minority psychosocial stress, among African Americans. Method-Data are from 391 African Americans in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Telomere Ancillary Study. We examined the number of domains in which racial discrimination was experienced in relation to LTL collected in Years 15 and 25 (Y15: 2000/2001; Y25: 2010/2011). Multivariable linear regression examined if racial discrimination was associated with LTL. Latent change score analysis (LCS) examined changes in racial discrimination and LTL in relation to one another. Results-Controlling for racial discrimination at Y15, multivariable linear regression analyses indicated that racial discrimination at Y25 was significantly associated with LTL at Y25. This relationship remained robust after adjusting for LTL at Y15 (b = −.019, p = .015). Consistent with this finding, LCS revealed that increases in experiences of racial discrimination were associated with faster 10-year LTL shortening (b = −.019, p = .015). Conclusions-This study adds to evidence that racial discrimination contributes to accelerated physiologic weathering and health declines among African Americans through its impact on biological systems, including via its effects on telomere attrition.

The fire this time: The stress of racism, inflammation and COVID-19

“…First, altered immune function, hypothalamic-pituitary axis (HPA) dysfunction, and metabolic changes secondary to stress can contribute to medical co-morbidities such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension and asthma, all of which increase COVID-19 risk. Everyday discrimination is a stressor that has been linked to poor health, inflammation, and premature cellular aging (Chae et al, 2020). Hence, discrimination experiences may also explain why African Americans are at a disproportionately higher risk for poor medical (e.g., cardiovascular disease, metabolic, hypertension) and psychiatric outcomes (e.g., depression, anxiety).…”

Commentary on the special issue on disproportionate exposure to trauma: Trauma, stress, and adversities and health disparities among disenfranchised groups globally during the COVID pandemic

“…In addition, there is evidence of an association between a higher allostatic load, a composite measure of multisystem dysregulation, and consistently elevated levels of perceived racial discrimination among African American adolescents, the latter only ameliorated by the receipt of high levels of emotional support (Brody et al., 2014). Finally, using recent methods designed to examine biomarkers of “weathering” or aging, some studies have demonstrated that African American youth and adults show accelerated physiologic weathering through telomere attrition with associated health declines across age and sex (Chae et al., 2020; S. Y. Liu & Kawachi, 2017; Pantesco et al., 2018; Rewak et al., 2014) as well as DNA methylation patterns indicative of biological aging (Brody et al., 2016). The effects are notably cumulative, with a positive association reported between a higher lifetime burden of racial or gender discrimination and shorter telomere length (Pantesco et al., 2018).…”

Telomere length: biological marker of cellular vitality, aging, and health-disease process

“…Analogous to physical disorders, traumatic social exposures or lifelong psychoemotional disorders, such as chronic stress and childhood traumas (abuse, violence, racism, bulling, low socioeconomic status, maternal depression, family disorder, and institutionalization, etc. ), also cause a decrease in telomere length [58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65] .…”