Accelerated Health Declines among African Americans in the USA.

The weathering hypothesis, an explanation for race disparities in the USA, asserts that the health of African Americans begin to deteriorate prematurely compared to whites as a consequence of long-term exposure to social and environmental risk factors. Using data from 2000-2009 National Health Interview Surveys (NHIS), we sought to describe differences in age-related health outcomes in 619,130 African Americans and whites. Outcome measures included hypertension, diabetes, stroke, and cardiovascular disease. Using a mixed models approach to age-period-cohort analysis, we calculated age- and race-specific prevalence rates that accounted for the complex sampling design of NHIS. African Americans exhibited higher prevalence rates of hypertension, diabetes, and stroke than whites across all age groups. Consistent with the weathering hypothesis, African Americans exhibited equivalent prevalence rates for these three conditions 10 years earlier than whites. This suggests that African Americans are acquiring age-related conditions prematurely compared to whites.

Disparities in alcohol use: does race matter as much as place?

OBJECTIVES: National estimates of race differences in alcohol use suggest that whites are more likely to be current and binge users of alcohol. These findings fail to account for race differences in the social and environmental context where people live. This study aims to determine whether race disparities persist in alcohol use among individuals who share similar social and environmental conditions. METHODS: We compared race disparities between individuals living in a low-income racially integrated urban community without race differences in socioeconomic status (EHDIC-SWB) to individuals from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS 2003) to determine if race disparities in alcohol use were attenuated in the integrated environment. RESULTS: In the NHIS 2003 sample, compared to whites, African Americans had lower odds of being a current drinker (OR=0.56, 95% CI=0.49-0.64) and binge drinker (OR=0.68, 95% CI=0.58-0.80) independent of covariates. However in the EHDIC-SWB sample, African Americans had similar odds of being a current drinker (OR=0.94, 95% CI=0.67-1.33) and binge drinker (OR=1.02, 95% CI=0.77-1.35) compared to whites. CONCLUSIONS: Among individuals who share similar social and environmental risk exposures, race group differences in alcohol use patterns are similar.