Racial discrimination during adolescence tied to metabolic syndrome for young Black adults
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Key takeaways:
- Black adolescents who report more racial discrimination have worse inflammation and more sleep problems as adults.
- Racial discrimination is linked to greater odds for metabolic syndrome in adulthood.
Black adolescents who face more racial discrimination may be more likely to have metabolic syndrome at age 31 years, according to findings published in JAMA Network Open.
“Black adolescents who experience racial discrimination are predisposed to metabolic syndrome in young adulthood, which increases the risk for heart disease, diabetes and stroke,” Nia Heard-Garris, MD, MBA, MSc, assistant professor at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told Healio. “This study finds that this could be due to more sleep problems and higher levels of inflammation in these young adults.”
Heard-Garris and colleagues analyzed data from 322 Black adolescents who participated in the Strong African American Families Healthy Adults Project (SHAPE), an intervention study where Black families from rural counties in Georgia worked on skills to enhance parenting, strengthen family relationships and foster youth competency. After the 7-week intervention, families participated in regular follow-ups over 20 years. Adolescents completed the Schedule of Racist Events at age 19, 20 and 21 years to assess the level of racial discrimination they experienced, with a higher score indicating greater discrimination. A six-item sleep problems scale from the Medical Outcome Study was administered at age 25 years, with higher scores indicating more sleep problems.
Soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor levels were measured to assess inflammation. Glucose, triglycerides and HDL cholesterol were measured through blood samples at age 25 and 31 years. Blood pressure and waist circumference were also measured.
Participants were considered to have metabolic syndrome if they had a waist circumference of 94 cm or higher for men and 80 cm or higher for women along with two of the four following measures: elevated systolic BP of 130 mm Hg or higher, a high triglyceride level of more than 150 mg/dL, elevated fasting glucose of 100 mg/dL or higher and an HDL cholesterol of less than 40 mg/dL for men and less than 50 mg/dL for women.
At age 25 years, 18.6% of the study group had metabolic syndrome. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome increased to 36.6% at age 31 years.
In adjusted analyses, higher scores for racial discrimination were associated with greater soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor levels (beta = 0.006; 95% CI, 0.001-0.011), more sleep problems at age 25 years (beta = 0.062; 95% CI, 0.028-0.097) and higher odds for metabolic syndrome at age 31 years (beta = 0.095; 95% CI, 0.011-0.179).
Heard-Garris said it was surprising to see racial discrimination act through physiological issues as well as sleep to increase the risk for metabolic syndrome during adulthood.
“This study suggests that there may be targets that we can intervene upon to disrupt the pathway between racial discrimination and adverse metabolic health,” Heard-Garris said. “Additionally, this study provides more evidence that racial discrimination, even in adolescence, may have a lasting influence on health.”
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