Race and Unhealthy Behaviors: Chronic Stress, the HPA Axis, and Physical and Mental Health Disparities Over the Life Course

TLDR: Logistic regressions by race on data from the first 2 waves of the Americans' Changing Lives Survey found that among Whites, unhealthy behaviors strengthened the relationship between stressors and meeting major-depression criteria, and among Blacks, the relationship was stronger among those who had not engaged in unhealthy behaviors than among thosewho had.

Abstract: Objectives. We sought to determine whether unhealthy behaviors play a stress-buffering role in observed racial disparities in physical and mental health.Methods. We conducted logistic regressions by race on data from the first 2 waves of the Americans' Changing Lives Survey to determine whether unhealthy behaviors had buffering effects on the relationship between major stressors and chronic health conditions, and on the relationship between major stressors and meeting the criteria for major depression.Results. Among Whites, unhealthy behaviors strengthened the relationship between stressors and meeting major-depression criteria. Among Blacks, however, the relationship between stressors and meeting major-depression criteria was stronger among those who had not engaged in unhealthy behaviors than among those who had. Among both race groups there was a positive association between stressors and chronic health conditions. Among Blacks there was an additional positive association between number of unhealthy be...