• Mario Sims, Ana V Diez-Roux, Samson Y Gebreab, Allison Brenner, Patricia Dubbert, Sharon Wyatt, Marino Bruce, DeMarc Hickson, Tom Payne, and Herman Taylor.
• Department of Medicine, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi, USA.
• J Epidemiol Community Health. 2016 Feb 1; 70 (2): 187-94.

BackgroundUsing Jackson Heart Study data, we examined associations of multiple measures of perceived discrimination with health behaviours among African-Americans (AA).MethodsThe cross-sectional associations of everyday, lifetime and burden of discrimination with odds of smoking and mean differences in physical activity, dietary fat and sleep were examined among 4925 participants aged 35-84 years after adjustment for age and socioeconomic status (SES).ResultsMen reported slightly higher levels of everyday and lifetime discrimination than women and similar levels of burden of discrimination as women. After adjustment for age and SES, everyday discrimination was associated with more smoking and a greater percentage of dietary fat in men and women (OR for smoking: 1.13, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.28 and 1.19, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.34; mean difference in dietary fat: 0.37, p<0.05 and 0.43, p<0.01, in men and women, respectively). Everyday and lifetime discrimination were associated with fewer hours of sleep in men and women (mean difference for everyday discrimination: -0.08, p<0.05 and -0.18, p<0.001, respectively; and mean difference for lifetime discrimination: -0.08, p<0.05 and -0.24, p<0.001, respectively). Burden of discrimination was associated with more smoking and fewer hours of sleep in women only.ConclusionsHigher levels of perceived discrimination were associated with select health behaviours among men and women. Health behaviours offer a potential mechanism through which perceived discrimination affects health in AA.Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

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