Racial Discrimination and Telomere Length in Midlife African American Women: Interactions of Educational Attainment and Employment Status

Marilyn D Thomas; Saba Sohail; Rebecca M Mendez; Leticia Márquez-Magaña; Amani M Allen

doi:10.1093/abm/kaaa104

Racial Discrimination and Telomere Length in Midlife African American Women: Interactions of Educational Attainment and Employment Status

Ann Behav Med. 2021 Jun 28;55(7):601-611. doi: 10.1093/abm/kaaa104.

Authors

Marilyn D Thomas^{1

2}, Saba Sohail³, Rebecca M Mendez³, Leticia Márquez-Magaña³, Amani M Allen^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ University of California, San Francisco, Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, San Francisco, CA, USA.
² University of California, San Francisco, Department of Psychiatry, San Francisco, CA, USA.
³ San Francisco State University, Department of Biology, San Francisco, CA, USA.
⁴ University of California, Berkeley, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁵ University of California, Berkeley, Department of Community Health, School of Public Health, Berkeley, CA, USA.

Abstract

Background: Over the life course, African American (AA) women have faster telomere attrition, a biological indicator of accelerated aging, than White women. Race, sex, age, and composite socioeconomic status (SES) modify associations of institutional racial discrimination and telomere length. However, interactions with everyday racial discrimination have not been detected in AA women, nor have interactions with individual socioeconomic predictors.

Purpose: We estimated statistical interaction of institutional and everyday racial discrimination with age, education, employment, poverty, and composite SES on telomere length among midlife AA women.

Methods: Data are from a cross-section of 140 AA women aged 30-50 years residing in the San Francisco Bay Area. Participants completed questionnaires, computer-assisted self-interviews, physical examinations, and blood draws. Adjusted linear regression estimated bootstrapped racial discrimination-relative telomere length associations with interaction terms.

Results: Racial discrimination did not interact with age, poverty, or composite SES measures to modify associations with telomere length. Interactions between independent SES variables were nonsignificant for everyday discrimination whereas institutional discrimination interacted with educational attainment and employment status to modify telomere length. After adjusting for covariates, we found that higher institutional discrimination was associated with shorter telomeres among employed women with lower education (β = -0.020; 95% confidence interval = -0.036, -0.003). Among unemployed women with higher education, higher institutional discrimination was associated with longer telomeres (β = 0.017; 95% confidence interval = 0.003, 0.032). Factors related to having a post-high school education may be protective against the negative effects of institutional racism on cellular aging for AA women.

Keywords: African Americans; Aging; Educational status; Employment; Telomeres; Women’s Health.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Aging / ethnology
Black or African American / ethnology*
Black or African American / statistics & numerical data
Cellular Senescence / physiology*
Educational Status*
Employment*
Female
Humans
Middle Aged
Racism / ethnology*
Racism / statistics & numerical data
San Francisco / epidemiology
Social Class*
Telomere Shortening / physiology*
Women's Health / ethnology

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding