Social supports, perceived stress, and health: the black experience in medical school--a preliminary study.
Black medical students perceived significantly more stressors than white medical students in a predominantly white medical school environment (P=0.001). Black medical students perceived fewer social supports than white medical students, but not significantly fewer (P=0.224). There was no significant difference between mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels for the low and high stress groups (P=0.302 and 0.844, respectively). The total degree of perceived stressors did not predict systolic and diastolic blood pressure when controlling for potential confounders (0.05<P<0.1). The interaction of total degree stressors and total degree of social supports did not significantly predict systolic and diastolic blood pressures when controlling for potential confounding variables (P>0.25 and 0.1<P<0.25, respectively).
D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000209:etiology*; D008297:Male; D009657:North Carolina; D012931:Social Environment; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*