TY - JOUR
T1 - Perceived discrimination and health-related quality-of-life
T2 - gender differences among older African Americans
AU - Coley, Sheryl L.
AU - Mendes de Leon, Carlos F.
AU - Ward, Earlise C.
AU - Barnes, Lisa L.
AU - Skarupski, Kimberly A.
AU - Jacobs, Elizabeth A.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements The authors thank the Chicago Health and Aging Project research team and the study participants for their contributions to the overall study. This research was supported by awards from the National Institute on Aging (AG11101, AG22018, AG 032247 and AG033172), National Institute on Environmental Health Sciences (ES10902), National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (T32HD049302), University of Wisconsin Health Innovation Program, School of Medicine and Public Health from The Wisconsin Partnership Program, and the Community-Academic Partnerships core of the University of Wisconsin Institute for Clinical and Translational Research through the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Grant UL1TR000427. The authors have no conflicts of interest in the study design, analyses, interpretation of findings, writing, nor submission of this manuscript. The responsibility of this content rests solely on the authors and does not necessarily reflect the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, Springer International Publishing AG.
PY - 2017/12/1
Y1 - 2017/12/1
N2 - Purpose: Emerging data suggest that African-American women may fare worse than African-American men in health-related quality-of-life (HRQOL). Perceived discrimination is an important contributor to poor health overall among African Americans, but few studies examined the intersecting effects of perceived discrimination and gender in explaining HRQOL disparities. We investigated gender differences in HRQOL and tested whether perceived discrimination accounted for these differences. Methods: We examined data from the Chicago Health and Aging Project in which 5652 African-American adults aged 65 and older completed structured questionnaires about demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, HRQOL, perceived discrimination, and health-related variables. Logistic regression models were used to identify associations between perceived discrimination and gender differences in poor HRQOL outcomes (defined as 14+ unhealthy days in overall, physical, or mental health over the past 30 days) when controlling for the other variables. Results: More women reported poor overall HRQOL than men (24 vs. 16% respectively). Higher perceived discrimination was significantly associated with worse overall HRQOL (OR 1.11; 95% CI 1.08, 1.15), with stronger effects for women in overall and mental HRQOL. These gender disparities remained significant until controlling for potentially confounding variables. Perceived discrimination did not account for gender differences in poor physical HRQOL. Conclusions: Perceived discrimination is associated with poor HRQOL in older African Americans, with this association appearing stronger in women than men for mental HRQOL. These findings warrant further investigation of effects of perceived discrimination in gender disparities in overall health, and such research can inform and guide efforts for reducing these disparities.
AB - Purpose: Emerging data suggest that African-American women may fare worse than African-American men in health-related quality-of-life (HRQOL). Perceived discrimination is an important contributor to poor health overall among African Americans, but few studies examined the intersecting effects of perceived discrimination and gender in explaining HRQOL disparities. We investigated gender differences in HRQOL and tested whether perceived discrimination accounted for these differences. Methods: We examined data from the Chicago Health and Aging Project in which 5652 African-American adults aged 65 and older completed structured questionnaires about demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, HRQOL, perceived discrimination, and health-related variables. Logistic regression models were used to identify associations between perceived discrimination and gender differences in poor HRQOL outcomes (defined as 14+ unhealthy days in overall, physical, or mental health over the past 30 days) when controlling for the other variables. Results: More women reported poor overall HRQOL than men (24 vs. 16% respectively). Higher perceived discrimination was significantly associated with worse overall HRQOL (OR 1.11; 95% CI 1.08, 1.15), with stronger effects for women in overall and mental HRQOL. These gender disparities remained significant until controlling for potentially confounding variables. Perceived discrimination did not account for gender differences in poor physical HRQOL. Conclusions: Perceived discrimination is associated with poor HRQOL in older African Americans, with this association appearing stronger in women than men for mental HRQOL. These findings warrant further investigation of effects of perceived discrimination in gender disparities in overall health, and such research can inform and guide efforts for reducing these disparities.
KW - African American
KW - Disparities
KW - Gender differences
KW - Quality-of-life
KW - Sex differences
KW - Women’s health
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U2 - 10.1007/s11136-017-1663-9
DO - 10.1007/s11136-017-1663-9
M3 - Article
C2 - 28744665
AN - SCOPUS:85025842751
SN - 0962-9343
VL - 26
SP - 3449
EP - 3458
JO - Quality of Life Research
JF - Quality of Life Research
IS - 12
ER -