Racial Discrimination and Sleep Quality during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings from the Health, Ethnicity, and Pandemic (HEAP) Study

Li Niu; Donglan Zhang; Lu Shi; Xuesong Han; Zhuo Chen; Liwei Chen; Ming Wen; Hongmei Li; Baojiang Chen; Jian Li; Dejun Su; Yan Li

doi:10.1007/s11524-023-00743-w

Racial Discrimination and Sleep Quality during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings from the Health, Ethnicity, and Pandemic (HEAP) Study

J Urban Health. 2023 Jun;100(3):431-435. doi: 10.1007/s11524-023-00743-w. Epub 2023 Jun 29.

Authors

Li Niu¹, Donglan Zhang², Lu Shi³, Xuesong Han⁴, Zhuo Chen⁵, Liwei Chen⁶, Ming Wen⁷, Hongmei Li⁸, Baojiang Chen⁹, Jian Li¹⁰, Dejun Su¹¹, Yan Li^{12

13}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
² Department of Foundations of Medicine, New York University Long Island School of Medicine, Long Island, NY, USA.
³ Department of Public Health Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA.
⁴ Surveillance & Health Equity Science, American Cancer Society, Atlanta, GA, USA.
⁵ Department of Health Policy and Management, College of Public Health, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
⁶ Department of Epidemiology, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁷ Department of Sociology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
⁸ Department of Media, Journalism and Film, Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA.
⁹ School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Fielding School of Public Health, School of Nursing, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
¹¹ Center for Reducing Health Disparities, Department of Health Promotion, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA. dejun.su@unmc.edu.
¹² School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China. yanli2022@sjtu.edu.cn.
¹³ Department of Population Health Science and Policy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA. yanli2022@sjtu.edu.cn.

PMID: 37382863
PMCID: PMC10323061 (available on 2024-06-01)
DOI: 10.1007/s11524-023-00743-w

Abstract

Previous research has documented the association between racial discrimination and poor sleep quality. However, few studies have examined this association during the COVID-19 pandemic when racial discrimination is on the rise due to structural injustice and racism against people of color. Using data from the Health, Ethnicity, and Pandemic (HEAP) Study, a nationally representative survey of US adults, we assessed the association between racial discrimination and sleep quality among overall adults and by race and ethnicity. We found that racial discrimination during the pandemic was significantly associated with higher risks of poor sleep quality among non-Hispanic Black (OR = 2.19, 95% CI: 1.13-4.25) and Asian (OR = 2.75, 95% CI: 1.53-4.94) participants, but not among the other groups. The results suggested that sleep quality among Black and Asian populations may have been disproportionately affected by racial discrimination during the pandemic. Further study is needed to assess the causal relationship between racial discrimination and sleep quality.

Keywords: COVID-19; Health disparity; Racial discrimination; Sleep.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Asian
Black or African American
COVID-19*
Ethnicity
Hispanic or Latino
Humans
Pandemics
Racism*
Sleep Quality*
White