Correlates of perceived stress among community-dwelling older African Americans

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to identify correlates of perceived stress among older African Americans. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Guided by the National Institute on Aging’s (NIA) Health Disparities Research Framework, we grouped correlates into four levels–environmental, sociocultural, behavioral, and biological, and performed a cross-sectional analysis using ordinal logistic regression models. Participants included 722 African Americans [mean age = 73.61 years (SD = 6.33)] from the Minority Aging Research Study (MARS). Several protective correlates from environmental (e.g., larger life space), sociocultural (e.g., larger social network size), behavioral (e.g., more purpose in life), and biological (e.g., higher global cognition) levels were associated with a lower odds of having higher levels of perceived stress. CONCLUSIONS: Perceived stress was associated with established and novel correlates from every level. Future research is needed to examine how changes in these correlates may impact perceived stress in older African Americans.