Race and Socioeconomic Position: Examining Common Social Pathways to Disease Risk

Overview

Black Americans and those of lower socioeconomic position (SEP) are at higher risk for multiple diseases of aging and shorter lifespans, but the psychophysiological mechanisms that may account for these effects are not clear. The overarching objective of this pilot grant is to improve our understanding of the proximal social exposures and subsequent psychobiological processes that contribute to racial and socioeconomic health disparities. Precisely understanding what these mutable social and psychological mechanisms are is necessary in order to identify intervention targets at the level of the individual.

Black Americans and those of lower socioeconomic position (SEP) are at higher risk for multiple diseases of aging and shorter lifespans. Though these disparities are well-documented, the mechanisms that may account for them are still poorly understood. Low income or Black race do not, themselves, cause individuals to become sick. Instead, the social context and exposures associated with these personal attributes give rise to differential risk (1-3). Black race and lower SEP are overlapping in the United States and race and SEP may share common social exposures that contribute to disease risk because both Blacks and individuals of lower SEP are socially marginalized (e.g., devalued, pushed to the lower margins of society) and thus exposed to more stress associated with lower hierarchical rank (4). However, no studies to our knowledge have been designed to examine whether day-to-day social exposures common across race and SEP may contribute to higher overall disease burden in these groups. In this project, investigators examine whether daily social interaction patterns help to explain how race and SEP may be linked with well-established psychobiological pathways to disease (affect, behavior, and physiology). With respect to each of these pathways, investigators examine the extent to which within-person changes in social processes may be associated with effects that mirror (and thus could explain) between-group differences. For example, interactions in which one experiences a higher degree of disrespect may be associated with momentary changes in affect, behavior, and physiology that confer disease risk. Examination of these within-person processes allows for stronger causal inference and is directly relevant to the development of individual-level interventions (e.g., targeting cognitive, behavioral, and affective processes). These findings can directly inform individual and group interventions for stress reduction in health disparity populations.