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Race-Ethnicity, Poverty, Urban Stressors, and Telomere Length in a Detroit Community-based Sample.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Geronimus, AT; Pearson, JA; Linnenbringer, E; Schulz, AJ; Reyes, AG; Epel, ES; Lin, J; Blackburn, EH
Published in: Journal of health and social behavior
June 2015

Residents of distressed urban areas suffer early aging-related disease and excess mortality. Using a community-based participatory research approach in a collaboration between social researchers and cellular biologists, we collected a unique data set of 239 black, white, or Mexican adults from a stratified, multistage probability sample of three Detroit neighborhoods. We drew venous blood and measured telomere length (TL), an indicator of stress-mediated biological aging, linking respondents' TL to their community survey responses. We regressed TL on socioeconomic, psychosocial, neighborhood, and behavioral stressors, hypothesizing and finding an interaction between poverty and racial-ethnic group. Poor whites had shorter TL than nonpoor whites; poor and nonpoor blacks had equivalent TL; and poor Mexicans had longer TL than nonpoor Mexicans. Findings suggest unobserved heterogeneity bias is an important threat to the validity of estimates of TL differences by race-ethnicity. They point to health impacts of social identity as contingent, the products of structurally rooted biopsychosocial processes.

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Published In

Journal of health and social behavior

DOI

EISSN

2150-6000

ISSN

0022-1465

Publication Date

June 2015

Volume

56

Issue

2

Start / End Page

199 / 224

Related Subject Headings

  • White People
  • Urban Population
  • Telomere
  • Residence Characteristics
  • Public Health
  • Poverty
  • Middle Aged
  • Michigan
  • Mexican Americans
  • Male
 

Citation

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MLA
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Geronimus, A. T., Pearson, J. A., Linnenbringer, E., Schulz, A. J., Reyes, A. G., Epel, E. S., … Blackburn, E. H. (2015). Race-Ethnicity, Poverty, Urban Stressors, and Telomere Length in a Detroit Community-based Sample. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 56(2), 199–224. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022146515582100
Geronimus, Arline T., Jay A. Pearson, Erin Linnenbringer, Amy J. Schulz, Angela G. Reyes, Elissa S. Epel, Jue Lin, and Elizabeth H. Blackburn. “Race-Ethnicity, Poverty, Urban Stressors, and Telomere Length in a Detroit Community-based Sample.Journal of Health and Social Behavior 56, no. 2 (June 2015): 199–224. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022146515582100.
Geronimus AT, Pearson JA, Linnenbringer E, Schulz AJ, Reyes AG, Epel ES, et al. Race-Ethnicity, Poverty, Urban Stressors, and Telomere Length in a Detroit Community-based Sample. Journal of health and social behavior. 2015 Jun;56(2):199–224.
Geronimus, Arline T., et al. “Race-Ethnicity, Poverty, Urban Stressors, and Telomere Length in a Detroit Community-based Sample.Journal of Health and Social Behavior, vol. 56, no. 2, June 2015, pp. 199–224. Epmc, doi:10.1177/0022146515582100.
Geronimus AT, Pearson JA, Linnenbringer E, Schulz AJ, Reyes AG, Epel ES, Lin J, Blackburn EH. Race-Ethnicity, Poverty, Urban Stressors, and Telomere Length in a Detroit Community-based Sample. Journal of health and social behavior. 2015 Jun;56(2):199–224.
Journal cover image

Published In

Journal of health and social behavior

DOI

EISSN

2150-6000

ISSN

0022-1465

Publication Date

June 2015

Volume

56

Issue

2

Start / End Page

199 / 224

Related Subject Headings

  • White People
  • Urban Population
  • Telomere
  • Residence Characteristics
  • Public Health
  • Poverty
  • Middle Aged
  • Michigan
  • Mexican Americans
  • Male