Black men experience extremely high levels of social and psychological stress from unfavorable social and economic circumstances emerging from institutional discrimination and unfair treatment. Early exposure to stress and its rapid accumulation over the lifecourse can contribute to disproportionate risks for illness, disease and premature mortality among this population. The three-hit concept (hit 1: genetic predisposition; hit 2: early- life environment; hit 3: later-life environment) suggests that the poor health of Black men may be a function of interactions between cumulative stress, epigenetic mechanisms, and biological responses. Religiosity and spirituality have been found to impact health and the objective of this study is to examine how religiosity (practices associated with organized religion) and spirituality (individuals experiences with, awareness of, and connection to the transcendent) impact stress and its implications for improving the well-being and longevity of middle to old age Black men. This proposed study will use data from the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity Across the Life Span Study (HANDLS) and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to specify models guided by a biopsychosocial perspective.
The specific aims are to: 1) Investigate the independent associations of religiosity and spirituality on psychological and behavioral responses to stress, functional status, and mortality; 2) Investigate the interdependent relationships of religiosity and spirituality on psychological and behavioral responses to stress, functional status, and mortality; and 3) Examine the impact of religiosity and spirituality on biological and genomic markers to elucidate potential basic mechanisms through which they mediate the relationship between stress and mortality. Results from the proposed project will advance our understanding of religion and spirituality on health in the group most vulnerable to premature death. In addition, the proposed research will be used to inform subsequent studies focusing on the health benefits of religiosity and spirituality among Black men that can lead to religious and spiritual interventions which are highly scalable not only to Black men but potentially all racial/ethnic groups and genders, and at low/no cost.
Black men can anticipate to have life expectancies that are at least 6 years shorter than any other group of women or men; however, few studies have examined stress and related pathways leading to disease development, disability and premature mortality among this group and even fewer have considered factors that disrupt them. This project seeks to examine how religiosity and spirituality impact stress and its implications for improving the well-being and longevity of middle to old age Black men. Findings will be used to inform subsequent research objectives associated with the development of highly-scalable and cost-efficient solutions to improve health among Black men.
| Mwinnyaa, George; Porch, Tichelle; Bowie, Janice et al. (2018) The Association Between Happiness and Self-Rated Physical Health of African American Men: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study. Am J Mens Health 12:1615-1620 |
