title: How does race get "under the skin"?: inflammation, weathering, and metabolic problems in late life.
abstract: Using nationally representative data from the 2005-2006 U.S. National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, this study queries the mechanisms underlying worse metabolic outcomes--blood-sugar control and cardiovascular health--among black than white men ages 57-85. Results indicate that contrary to much of the academic literature as well as media accounts-implicitly rooted in a "culture of irresponsibility" model--older black men's social isolation, poor health behaviors, or obesity may not play a major role in their worse metabolic problems. Instead, these outcomes seem to derive more consistently from a factor almost unexamined in the literature--chronic inflammation, arguably a biological "weathering" mechanism induced by these men's cumulative and multi-dimensional stress. These findings highlight the necessity of focusing attention not simply on proximal behavioral interventions, but on broader stress-inducing social inequalities, to reduce men's race disparities in health.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, McGill University, Room 712, Leacock Building, 855 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2T7, Canada. aniruddha.das@mcgill.ca
authors.forename: Aniruddha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Das
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000208:ethnology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D044882:Glucose Metabolism Disorders / Q000208:ethnology*; D015438:Health Behavior / Q000208:ethnology; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000208:ethnology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000208:ethnology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012944:Social Support; D013312:Stress, Physiological; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*