Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association
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Research suggests that exposure to racism partially explains why African American women are 2 to 3 times more likely to deliver low birth weight and preterm infants. However, the physiological pathways by which racism exerts these effects are unclear. This study examined how lifetime exposure to racism, in combination with maternal blood pressure changes during pregnancy, was associated with fetal growth. ⋯ Increases in diastolic blood pressure between the second and third trimesters predicted lower birth weight, but only when racism exposure in childhood (direct or indirect) was relatively high. Understanding pregnant African American women's lifetime direct and indirect experiences with racism in combination with prenatal blood pressure may improve identification of highest risk subgroups within this population.
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The purpose of the current study was to examine perceived exposure to systemic racism as a moderator of the effects of perceived exposure to provider racial biases on treatment adherence and mistrust of health care for a sample of African American hypertensive patients. We hypothesized that patients who endorsed high levels of systemic racism would exhibit poor adherence to hypertension treatment and increased mistrust in health care in relation to perceptions of exposure to provider racial biases. ⋯ The overall findings suggest that patients who perceive themselves as infrequently exposed to systemic racism possess the greatest risk for nonadherence to hypertension treatment in relation to increased perceptions of provider racial biases. Implications of the findings are discussed.
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A growing body of evidence suggests that chronic pain patients suffer from chronic self-regulatory fatigue: difficulty controlling thoughts, emotions, and behavior. Pain acceptance, which involves responding to pain and related experiences without attempts to control or avoid them (pain willingness), and pursuit of valued life activities regardless of pain (activity engagement) has been associated with various favorable outcomes in chronic pain patients, including better psychological functioning. The study presented here tested the hypotheses that pain acceptance is associated with less psychological distress, higher psychological well-being, and reduced self-regulatory fatigue in temporomandibular disorder (TMD) patients, particularly for those with longer pain duration. ⋯ These findings suggest pain willingness may buffer against self-regulatory fatigue in those with longer pain duration, and such conservation of self-regulatory resources may protect against psychological symptoms.
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Controlled Clinical Trial
Perceived racial discrimination, but not mistrust of medical researchers, predicts the heat pain tolerance of African Americans with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis.
Studies have shown that perceived racial discrimination is a significant predictor of clinical pain severity among African Americans. It remains unknown whether perceived racial discrimination also alters the nociceptive processing of painful stimuli, which, in turn, could influence clinical pain severity. This study examined associations between perceived racial discrimination and responses to noxious thermal stimuli among African Americans and non-Hispanic Whites. Mistrust of medical researchers was also assessed given its potential to affect responses to the noxious stimuli. ⋯ These results lend support to the idea that perceived racial discrimination may influence the clinical pain severity of African Americans via the nociceptive processing of painful stimuli.
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Several chronic pain conditions are more prevalent in Native Americans than in any other group in the United States; however, little has been done to identify factors contributing to this disparity. The study presented here was designed to examine whether there were pain processing differences in Native Americans relative to non-Hispanic White controls. ⋯ Findings suggest Native Americans have dampened pain and pain signaling, perhaps due to overactivation of descending pain inhibition mechanisms. Given research indicating that other ethnic groups at risk for chronic pain (e.g., African Americans) show enhanced pain and enhanced central sensitization on experimental pain measures, chronic pain risk could be different for Native Americans, thus emphasizing the need for different treatment interventions.