Racism, Psycho-Social Stress, and Health-related Quality of Life

Abstract

There is a paucity of information on the intermediate behavioral pathways linking exposure to racial discrimination with negative health outcomes among racial and ethnic minority populations in low income settings. This study examined the association between experiences of discrimination and the number of unhealthy days due to physical or mental illness and whether alcohol use influenced the association. A community needs assessment was conducted from 2013-2014 within a low-income community in Florida. Structural equation modeling was performed using maximum likelihood estimation with robust standard errors. In a total of 201 observations, path analyses uncovered significant positive indirect associations (p<0.05) between perceived discrimination and unhealthy days through perceived stress, sleep disturbances, and chronic illness. Although a maladaptive mechanism, alcohol use was a strong buffer on the effects of racism on stress. Key words: • Racism • Psychosocial stress • Quality of life • Mental illness Copyright © 2020 Salihu et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.