Study reveals stress contributes to Black Americans’ higher risk of mortality

A recent study performed by a group of students at Washington University in St. Louis found that there is a rise in mortality risk in Black Americans that could be due to the population’s greater exposure to stressors in comparison to white Americans.

The students reviewed data from the St. Louis Personality and Aging Network Study, following older adults throughout the span of 20 years. They reviewed data such as blood draws, surveys and retrospective reports of childhood experiences to explain the extent of each participant’s stress levels and exposure throughout their lives and how these are related to inflammatory biological markers.

“If stress becomes chronic, that could be incorporated into one’s homeostasis; you may become less able to mount your biological systems to respond to acute stress challenges and you may be less able to return to a bodily state that promotes regeneration and restoration,” senior author Ryan Bodgan, the William R. Stuckenberg Professor in Human Values and Moral Development and director of the university’s BRAIN Lab, told the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education.

According to their analysis, white participants had less stress exposure and lower levels of inflammation in comparison to Black participants. This explained around half of the increase in mortality risk in Black Americans who participated in the study. The students believe that these stressors come from a repeated pattern of racism and the societal structures that have undermined Black Americans throughout history.

“Stress exposure will always be there,” Isaiah Spears, the study’s lead author, told JBHE. “So we need to devote more efforts to understand the mechanisms through which stress contributes to adverse health outcomes so that factors could be targeted to minimize health risks among those exposed.”