Physical morbidity and mortality disparities consistently favor non-Hispanic whites over black Americans. Epidemiological studies reveal that black Americans suffer the same or lower rates of mental disorders as whites. In highly stressful environments individuals often engage in negative health behaviors, e.g. smoking, alcohol use and abuse, drug use, and over-eating, to cope with the stressors of daily life. These behaviors, perhaps through mechanisms associated with the HPA axis, alleviate the stressful reactions to these environmental exposures; the same chronic stress exposures and poor health behaviors that are silently affecting biological pathways to eventual negative physical health morbidity and mortality. Thus, lower rates of mental disorders among the African American population are at the expense of higher physical health morbidities and mortality in comparison to the non-Hispanic white population. We hypothesize and present a complex framework involving environmental factors, chronic stressors, and the stress response through the HPA-Axis, that account for the interrelationship among mental disorders and cardiovascular health outcomes. The observed epidemiological and clinical physical health/mental disorder paradox will be addressed using: 1) analyses of existing large epidemiological datasets; 2) analyses of survey and clinical datasets containing epidemiological, risk factor, and biological indicators; and, 3) a longitudinal cohort, clinical study examining in detail the relationship among biological and social risk factors, biomarkers for cardiovascular health and mood disorders, among black and white women. There are three interrelated, multi-disciplinary, specific aims, at increasing levels of specificity: 1) analyses of observational/epidemiological data on physical and mental disorders, 2) analyses of potential biological pathways of physical morbidity and mental disorder interrelationships in observational/epidemiological studies, and 3) a clinic based 112 month longitudinal study of potential interventions that affect cardiovascular risk behaviors and risk and resilience biomarkers, and risks for mood disorders and biomarkers for stress and HPA functioning, among African American as compared to non-Hispanic white women.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)
Type
Comprehensive Center (P60)
Project #
5P60MD002249-05
Application #
8353392
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZMD1-LW (07))
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2011-09-01
Budget End
2012-08-31
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2011
Total Cost
$380,000
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Department
Type
DUNS #
073133571
City
Ann Arbor
State
MI
Country
United States
Zip Code
48109
Ward, Melanie; Schulz, Amy J; Israel, Barbara A et al. (2018) A conceptual framework for evaluating health equity promotion within community-based participatory research partnerships. Eval Program Plann 70:25-34
Hussein, Mustafa; Diez Roux, Ana V; Mujahid, Mahasin S et al. (2018) Unequal Exposure or Unequal Vulnerability? Contributions of Neighborhood Conditions and Cardiovascular Risk Factors to Socioeconomic Inequality in Incident Cardiovascular Disease in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Am J Epidemiol 187:1424-1437
Ward, Julia B; Robinson, Whitney R; Pence, Brian W et al. (2018) Educational Mobility Across Generations and Depressive Symptoms Over 10 Years Among US Latinos. Am J Epidemiol :
Cardel, Michelle I; Min, Yuan-I; Sims, Mario et al. (2018) Association of psychosocial stressors with metabolic syndrome severity among African Americans in the Jackson Heart Study. Psychoneuroendocrinology 90:141-147
Dong, Liming; Freedman, Vicki A; Sánchez, Brisa N et al. (2018) Racial and ethnic differences in disability transitions among older adults in the United States. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci :
Brenner, Allison B; Diez-Roux, Ana V; Gebreab, Samson Y et al. (2018) The Epidemiology of Coping in African American Adults in the Jackson Heart Study (JHS). J Racial Ethn Health Disparities 5:978-994
Kern, David M; Auchincloss, Amy H; Stehr, Mark F et al. (2018) Neighborhood price of healthier food relative to unhealthy food and its association with type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance: The multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis. Prev Med 106:122-129
Lê-Scherban, Félice; Brenner, Allison B; Hicken, Margaret T et al. (2018) Child and Adult Socioeconomic Status and the Cortisol Response to Acute Stress: Evidence From the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Psychosom Med 80:184-192
Torres, Jacqueline M; Epel, Elissa S; To, Tu My et al. (2018) Cross-border ties, nativity, and inflammatory markers in a population-based prospective study of Latino adults. Soc Sci Med 211:21-30
Ward, Julia B; Vines, Anissa I; Haan, Mary N et al. (2018) Spanish Language Use Across Generations and Depressive Symptoms Among US Latinos. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev :

Showing the most recent 10 out of 192 publications