Discrimination, Symptoms of Depression, and Self-Rated Health Among African American Women in Detroit: Results From a Longitudinal Analysis
Amy J. Schulz, PhD,
Clarence C. Gravlee, PhD,
David R. Williams, PhD,
Barbara A. Israel, DrPH,
Graciela Mentz, PhD and
Zachary Rowe, BS
Amy J. Schulz and Barbara A. Israel are with the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor. At the time the research was conducted, Clarence C. Gravlee and Graciela Mentz were with the University of Michigan School of Public Health. David R. Williams is with the Department of Sociology and Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. Zachary Rowe is with Friends of Parkside, Detroit, Mich.
Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Amy J. Schulz, 5134 SPH II, 1420 Washington Heights, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029 (e-mail: ajschulz{at}umich.edu).
Objectives. Our understanding of the relationships between perceiveddiscrimination and health was limited by the cross-sectionaldesign of most previous studies. We examined the longitudinalassociation of self-reported everyday discrimination with depressivesymptoms and self-rated general health.
Methods. Data came from 2 waves (1996 and 2001) of the EastsideVillage Health Worker Partnership survey, a community-basedparticipatory survey of African American women living on Detroitseast side (n=343). We use longitudinal models to test the hypothesisthat a change in everyday discrimination over time is associatedwith a change in self-reported symptoms of depression (positive)and on self-reported general health status (negative).
Results. We found that a change over time in discriminationwas significantly associated with a change over time in depressivesymptoms (positive) (b=0.125; P<.001) and self-rated generalhealth (negative) (b=0.163; P<.05) independent ofage, education, or income.
Conclusions. The results reported here are consistent with thehypothesis that everyday encounters with discrimination arecausally associated with poor mental and physical health outcomes.In this sample of African American women, this association holdsabove and beyond the effects of income and education.
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