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Navigating Black Aging: The Biological Consequences of Stress and Depression

OBJECTIVES: Black persons in the United States are more likely to suffer from social inequality. Chronic stress caused by social inequality and racial discrimination results in weathering of the body that causes physiological dysregulation and biological age being higher than chronological age (acce...

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Autores principales: Forrester, Sarah N, Whitfield, Keith E, Kiefe, Catarina I, Thorpe, Roland J
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9683493/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34875069
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbab224
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author Forrester, Sarah N
Whitfield, Keith E
Kiefe, Catarina I
Thorpe, Roland J
author_facet Forrester, Sarah N
Whitfield, Keith E
Kiefe, Catarina I
Thorpe, Roland J
author_sort Forrester, Sarah N
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: Black persons in the United States are more likely to suffer from social inequality. Chronic stress caused by social inequality and racial discrimination results in weathering of the body that causes physiological dysregulation and biological age being higher than chronological age (accelerated aging). Depression has been linked to both racial discrimination and accelerated aging and accelerated aging has been demonstrated to be higher in Black than White persons, on average. However, we know little about accelerated aging across the life course in Black Americans. METHODS: We used mixed-effects growth models to measure biological age acceleration, measured with cardiometabolic markers, over a 20-year period in Black participants of the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study who were aged 27–42 years at analytic baseline. We included an interaction between depressive symptoms and time to determine whether risk of depression was associated with a faster rate of biological aging. RESULTS: We found that the rate of biological aging increased over a 20-year span and that those at risk for depression had a faster rate of biological aging than those not at risk. We also found that various social factors were associated with biological age acceleration over time. DISCUSSION: Given the known association between perceived racial discrimination and depressive symptoms, we provide a novel instance of the long-term effects of social inequality. Specifically, biological age acceleration, a marker of physiological dysregulation, is associated with time among Black persons and more strongly associated among those with depressive symptoms.
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spelling pubmed-96834932022-11-25 Navigating Black Aging: The Biological Consequences of Stress and Depression Forrester, Sarah N Whitfield, Keith E Kiefe, Catarina I Thorpe, Roland J J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci THE JOURNAL OF GERONTOLOGY: Joint Special Issue: Psychological and Social Sciences OBJECTIVES: Black persons in the United States are more likely to suffer from social inequality. Chronic stress caused by social inequality and racial discrimination results in weathering of the body that causes physiological dysregulation and biological age being higher than chronological age (accelerated aging). Depression has been linked to both racial discrimination and accelerated aging and accelerated aging has been demonstrated to be higher in Black than White persons, on average. However, we know little about accelerated aging across the life course in Black Americans. METHODS: We used mixed-effects growth models to measure biological age acceleration, measured with cardiometabolic markers, over a 20-year period in Black participants of the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study who were aged 27–42 years at analytic baseline. We included an interaction between depressive symptoms and time to determine whether risk of depression was associated with a faster rate of biological aging. RESULTS: We found that the rate of biological aging increased over a 20-year span and that those at risk for depression had a faster rate of biological aging than those not at risk. We also found that various social factors were associated with biological age acceleration over time. DISCUSSION: Given the known association between perceived racial discrimination and depressive symptoms, we provide a novel instance of the long-term effects of social inequality. Specifically, biological age acceleration, a marker of physiological dysregulation, is associated with time among Black persons and more strongly associated among those with depressive symptoms. Oxford University Press 2021-12-07 /pmc/articles/PMC9683493/ /pubmed/34875069 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbab224 Text en © The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
spellingShingle THE JOURNAL OF GERONTOLOGY: Joint Special Issue: Psychological and Social Sciences
Forrester, Sarah N
Whitfield, Keith E
Kiefe, Catarina I
Thorpe, Roland J
Navigating Black Aging: The Biological Consequences of Stress and Depression
title Navigating Black Aging: The Biological Consequences of Stress and Depression
title_full Navigating Black Aging: The Biological Consequences of Stress and Depression
title_fullStr Navigating Black Aging: The Biological Consequences of Stress and Depression
title_full_unstemmed Navigating Black Aging: The Biological Consequences of Stress and Depression
title_short Navigating Black Aging: The Biological Consequences of Stress and Depression
title_sort navigating black aging: the biological consequences of stress and depression
topic THE JOURNAL OF GERONTOLOGY: Joint Special Issue: Psychological and Social Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9683493/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34875069
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbab224
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