The effects of social adversity, discrimination, and health risk behaviors on the accelerated aging of African Americans: Further support for the weathering hypothesis

Simons, Ronald L.; Lei, Man‐Kit; Klopack, Eric T.; Beach, Steven R. H.; Gibbons, Frederick X.; Philibert, Robert A.

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113169

Cited by 111 publications

(108 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…What is different in cumulative inequality is the move toward depictions of aging as a set of biomarkers, with the implication that inequality determines aging and agedness, rather than influencing issues associated with later life. For example, Simons et al (2020) have recently used the aforementioned epigenetic clock to show that social adversity and discrimination faced by African Americans accelerates their aging. Aging is here defined as DNA methylation.…”

Section: Cumulative Inequalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Aging is here defined as DNA methylation. They conclude: “social disadvantages commonly experienced by Black Americans exhibited both unique and combined effects on accelerated aging” ( Simons et al, 2020 : 7). This builds on Levine and Crimmins' (2014b, 30) earlier study, which concluded that: “racial differences in the pace of aging—as signified by biological age—may be a central mechanism for the earlier overall and disease-specific mortality of black individuals.” Aging here is a composite of ten biomarkers.…”

Section: Cumulative Inequalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Anti-aging technoscience & the biologization of cumulative inequality: Affinities in the biopolitics of successful aging

Fletcher

2020

Journal of Aging Studies

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This paper charts the emergence of under-remarked affinities between contemporary anti-aging technoscience and some social scientific work on biological aging. Both have recently sought to develop increasingly sophisticated operationalizations of age, aging and agedness as biological phenomena, in response to traditional notions of normal and chronological aging. Rather than being an interesting coincidence, these affinities indicate the influence of a biopolitics of successful aging on government, industry and social science. This biopolitics construes aging as a personal project that is mastered through specific forms of entrepreneurial individual action, especially consumption practices. Social scientists must remain alert to this biopolitics and its influence on their own work, because the individualization of cumulative inequalities provides intellectual and moral justifications for anti-aging interventions that exploit those inequalities.

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Section: Cumulative Inequalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cumulative Inequalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Anti-aging technoscience & the biologization of cumulative inequality: Affinities in the biopolitics of successful aging

Fletcher

2020

Journal of Aging Studies

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“…Conversely, some scholars have reported no evidence of a link between gender and the practice of unhealthy behaviors. 24 Given the link between gender and health behavior reported in these studies, both age and gender were used as independent control variables in the analysis of COVID-19 prevention behaviors of the participants in this study.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disease Prevention Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Role of Self-Esteem: An Extended Parallel Process Model

Lin¹,

Chen²

2021

PRBM

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Objective: The COVID-19 outbreak has become a serious public health problem worldwide. The purpose of this study was to use an extended parallel process model (EPPM) to understand factors in COVID-19 prevention behaviors. Methods: This cross-sectional and analytical study was conducted on 1012 participants in Taiwan. A structured questionnaire and an online survey were used to collect data. Results: The EPPM revealed that the severity of the COVID-19 threat perceived by respondents directly affected the arousal of fear in the respondents (β=0.268, t=9.007, p<0.001), but perceived efficacy did not (β=−0.019, t=−0.619, p>0.05); additionally, fear arousal was significantly associated with COVID-19 prevention behaviors (β=0.119, t=4.603, p<0.001). Regarding personal characteristics, self-esteem moderated the relationship between perceived threat and fear arousal. However, the moderating effect of self-esteem was stronger in people with low self-esteem compared to those with high self-esteem (β=0.606, −0.472; t=26.303, −17.694; p<0.001, p<0.001; respectively). The results of this study also indicated that two demographic characteristics (age and gender) affect COVID-19 prevention behaviors. Conclusion: When developing healthcare policies and community interventions for improving COVID-19 prevention behaviors during an outbreak, healthcare administrators should carefully consider the main constructs of the EPPM, particularly personal characteristics (ie, self-esteem) and demographic characteristics (ie, age and gender).

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“…In some respects, however, this shortcoming might be seen as a strength. Myriad studies have established that African Americans are at higher risk than other ethnic groups for chronic illness [5,33], for inflammatory burden [29,30], and for exposure to neighborhood disorder [32]. Further, there is evidence indicating that the impact of neighborhood characteristics on health is more pronounced for women than men [12,28,31].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Over the past two decades, there has been increasing interest in how social conditions influence health and disease [1][2][3][4][5]. For example, recent research indicates that lower socioeconomic status (SES) and exposure to childhood adversity are associated with a higher prevalence of chronic illnesses, including diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and immune system dysregulation [6][7][8][9][10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Association between Neighborhood Disorder and Health: Exploring the Moderating Role of Genotype and Marriage

Lei

2021

IJERPH

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The present study extends prior research on the link between neighborhood disorder and health by testing an integrated model that combines various social and biological factors. Hypotheses were tested using a sample of 325 African American women from the Family and Community Health Study (FACHS). As expected, inflammatory burden was the biophysiological mechanism that mediated much of the association between neighborhood physical disorder and perceived physical health. This finding provided additional support for the view that global self-ratings of health are powerful predictors of morbidity because, in large measure, they are indicators of chronic, systemic inflammation. Further, both genetic variation and marital status served to moderate the association between neighborhood disorder and health. Finally, being married largely eliminated the probability that neighborhood disorder would combine with genetic vulnerability to increase inflammatory burden and perceived illness. Overall, the findings demonstrate the value of constructing integrated models that specify various biophysiological mechanisms that link social conditions to physical health.

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The effects of social adversity, discrimination, and health risk behaviors on the accelerated aging of African Americans: Further support for the weathering hypothesis

Cited by 111 publications

References 55 publications

Anti-aging technoscience & the biologization of cumulative inequality: Affinities in the biopolitics of successful aging

Anti-aging technoscience & the biologization of cumulative inequality: Affinities in the biopolitics of successful aging

Disease Prevention Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Role of Self-Esteem: An Extended Parallel Process Model

The Association between Neighborhood Disorder and Health: Exploring the Moderating Role of Genotype and Marriage

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