Is racism among black women a recognized risk factor for stroke?

Top line:

Experiencing interpersonal racism in employment, housing, or police situations increases the risk of: stroke A large cohort study found that among black women,

methodology:

• Researchers studied perceived interpersonal racism (implicit or explicit racial bias) and stroke incidence in 48,375 black U.S. women participating in the prospective Black Women’s Health Study. We investigated the relationship between

• In 1997, participants had a mean age of 41 years, had no history of stroke, and provided information on reported experiences of racism in daily life.

• Participants were followed until stroke onset, death, loss to follow-up, or until the end of 2019.

• Findings were adjusted for key confounders such as education, neighborhood socio-economic environment, and cardiometabolic factors.

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• During the 22-year follow-up period, 1,664 stroke cases were identified, including 550 confirmed cases confirmed by neurologist examination and/or National Death Index linkage.

• Across all incidents, women who reported interpersonal racism related to employment, housing, and police had a 38% increased risk of stroke (adjusted hazard ratio). [aHR]1.38; P < .001), compared with women who did not report these experiences.

• Similar results were observed in a smaller group of overt stroke cases, although the findings were not significant (aHR, 1.37; P = .05).

• Comparing women in the highest and lowest quartiles of everyday interpersonal racism, the multivariate aHR was 1.14 (P = .03) for all incident strokes.

in fact:

“Black Americans experience stroke and stroke-related death more frequently at younger ages than other racial groups. The burden of racism experienced by Black Americans contributes to racial disparities in stroke rates.” “This may be the case,” the authors said. write.

sauce:

The study, led by Dr. Shanshan Sheehy of the Boston University Lawn Epidemiology Center, was conducted as follows. Published online November 10th JAMA network open.

Limitations:

The primary stroke endpoint included self-reported stroke. Medical records are not available for all stroke events. Perceived racism captures an individual’s perception of their experience of racism and is inevitably subject to measurement error. This study was observational and there was potential for unmeasured residual confounding. The cohort of Black women had higher levels of education compared to the general population of Black women.

Disclosure:

This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health. The authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.