Document Type
Article
Version
Author's Final Manuscript
Publication Title
Health Psychology
Volume
35
Publication Date
2016
Abstract
Objective: Unfair treatment may have a detrimental effect on cardiovascular health. However, little research on chronic health outcomes employs cumulative measures of unfair treatment. We tested whether cumulative unfair treatment was associated with greater subclinical cardiovascular disease in a diverse sample of African American, Caucasian, Chinese, and Hispanic women. We also examined whether this relationship varied by race. Method: The Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation is a longitudinal study of midlife women. Cumulative unfair treatment was calculated as the average of unfair treatment assessed over 10 years at 6 time points. Subclinical cardiovascular disease, specifically carotid intima media thickness and adventitial diameter, was assessed via carotid ultrasound conducted at study year 12 in 1056 women. We tested whether cumulative unfair treatment was related to subclinical cardiovascular disease via linear regression, controlling for demographic factors including socioeconomic status and cardiovascular risk factors. Results: The relation between unfair treatment and subclinical cardiovascular disease significantly varied by race (ps < .05), with unfair treatment related to higher intima media thickness (B = .03, SE = .01, p = .009) and adventitial diameter (B = .02, SE = .009, p = .013) among Caucasian women only. No significant relations between unfair treatment and subclinical cardiovascular disease outcomes were observed for African American, Hispanic, and Chinese women. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that cumulative unfair treatment is related to worse subclinical cardiovascular disease among Caucasian women. These findings add to the growing literature showing that Caucasian women’s experience of unfair treatment may have detrimental health implications.
Publisher's Statement
This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record. Final published version available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27018722. © 2016 APA
Citation
Peterson, L., Matthews, K. A., Derby, C. A., Bromberger, J. T., and Thurston, R. C. 2016. "The Relationship Between Cumulative Unfair Treatment and Intima Media Thickness and Adventitial Diameter: The Moderating Role of Race in The Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation." Health Psychology 35 (4): 313-321.
DOI
10.1037/hea0000288