Browsing by Subject "Cardiovascular health"

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Friendship, racial differences and health in adulthood
(2022-08-14) Ng, Yee To; Fingerman, Karen L.; Han, Sae Hwang; Birditt, Kira; Huo, Meng; Munoz , Elizabeth
Social relationships are associated with health across adulthood. While experiences involving friends occur in our everyday lives, we know little about the implications of friends on momentary health. Additionally, racial backgrounds may influence friendship opportunities due to structural racism, which in turn, may affect ongoing friendship patterns and health. This dissertation investigated unique effects of friends on momentary health among Black and White American adults. Study 1 examined how often Black and White adults encountered friends in real-life settings using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) technique. Moreover, I examined whether encounters with friends affect momentary mood differently for these distinct racial groups and for those who endorse more friends as important ties. Multilevel models revealed that Black adults encountered friends just as much as White adults. At times when individuals met with friends, they had increased positive mood than when they did not (within-person association), and this was only observed in White adults. Further, individuals who encountered more friends during the study period had higher positive mood than those who encountered fewer friends (between-person association), and this was observed in Black adults. Using ambulatory physiological assessments and EMA reports, Study 2 examined how encounters with friends affect individuals’ cardiovascular health as indicated by heart rate variability (HRV). Study 2 also considered the quality of encounters and explored the racial differences. Findings did not reveal a robust within-person association between encounters with friends and HRV in the overall sample. Yet, race-stratified models revealed that when Black adults met with friends, they had reduced HRV than when they did not (within-person association), but Black adults who encountered more friends during the study period had higher HRV than their same-race counterparts who encountered fewer friends (between-person association). Together, findings suggest White adults may reap immediate emotional benefits at times when they encounter friends. Black adults may not obtain immediate health benefits, but friends could still be linked to their emotional and cardiovascular health in the long run. This work contributes to the racial health disparity literature by providing a better understanding of how friends may prevent mental or cardiovascular conditions for different racial groups. (350 out of 350 words)
Three essays on the social and temporal dimensions of cardiovascular health among the Mexican-origin population in the United States
(2014-08) Dondero, Molly; Hummer, Robert A.
The size of the Mexican-origin population in the United States means that its health patterns have important implications for the country’s overall population health. Understanding how this population is woven into the country’s complex social patterning of health is critical to understanding current social disparities in health. Drawing on a health disparities perspective and nationally representative datasets, this dissertation addresses key gaps in the social demographic literature on the health of the Mexican-origin population through three empirical chapters that examine how multiple measures of cardiovascular health are distributed across diverse social status and temporal configurations. I first examine how the obesity epidemic has unfolded across multiple temporal (age, period, and cohort) and social dimensions (gender, nativity, and race) for the Mexican-origin population. I find that period rather than cohort forces have shaped the rise in obesity among the Mexican-origin population. Furthermore, the pronounced group differences in obesity prevalence have remained stable across periods and cohorts, with the exception of a growing nativity gap among Mexican-origin women, among whom obesity has increased faster for U.S.-born individuals compared with foreign-born individuals. I next address the intersection of two additional temporal and social determinants of health: duration of residence in the United States and educational attainment. Building on research documenting a weak relationship between education and health for Mexican immigrants, I assess whether duration of U.S. residence strengthens this association. The patterns vary by outcome, but generally indicate that negative education gradients in health are more pronounced for long-term Mexican immigrants than for recent Mexican immigrants and that the education gradients of long-term Mexican immigrants resemble those of U.S.-born Whites. I then engage the literature linking acculturation to poor health among Mexican immigrants. Acculturation models of immigrant health have come under critique for ignoring the structural determinants of health. I engage in this debate by using segmented assimilation theory—which emphasizes the role of structural factors—to examine whether education conditions the association between acculturation and health. I find support for the idea that the detrimental influence of acculturation on cardiovascular health is concentrated among Mexican immigrant adults with low levels of education.