A national data set of historical US sundown towns for quantitative analysis.

We present a new national data set of historical sundown towns in the United States linked to contemporary spatial information - i.e., the Historical Sundown Towns Linked to US Census Geographies database.

DNA Methylation Age Acceleration Mediates the Relationship between Systemic Inflammation and Cognitive Impairment.

Background: Chronic inflammation and DNA methylation are potential mechanisms in dementia etiology. The linkage between inflammation and DNA methylation age acceleration in shaping dementia risk is understudied. We explored the association of inflammatory cytokines with cognitive impairment and whether DNA methylation age acceleration mediates this relationship.

Racial and Ethnic Residential Segregation and Monocyte DNA Methylation Age Acceleration.

Importance: Neighborhood segregation and poverty may be important drivers of health inequities. Epigenomic factors, including DNA methylation clocks that may mark underlying biological aging, have been implicated in the link between social factors and health.

Objective: To examine the associations of neighborhood segregation and poverty with 4 DNA methylation clocks trained to capture either chronological age or physiological dysregulation.

Evaluating Race in Air Pollution and Health Research: Race, PM Air Pollution Exposure, and Mortality as a Case Study.

Purpose Of Review: Racial inequities in air pollution exposure have been documented. There is also interest in documenting the modifying role of race in the link between air pollution and health. However, the empirical literature in this area has yielded mixed results with potentially unclear policy implications.

Linking History to Contemporary State-Sanctioned Slow Violence through Cultural and Structural Racism.

Environmental scientists started documenting the racial inequities of environmental exposures (e.g., proximity to waste facilities or to industrial pollution) in the 1970s and 1980s.

Racial Segregation and Cognitive Function Among Older Adults in the United States: Findings From the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke Study.

Objectives: Residential segregation is one of the fundamental features of health disparities in the United States. Yet little research has examined how living in segregated metropolitan areas is related to cognitive function and cognitive decline with age. We examined the association between segregation at the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) level and trajectories of age-related cognitive function.

Structural Racism: The Rules and Relations of Inequity.

Why do racial inequalities endure despite numerous attempts to expand civil rights in certain sectors? A major reason for this endurance is due to lack of attention to structural racism. Although structural and institutional racism are often conflated, they are not the same. Herein, we provide an analogy of a "bucky ball" (Buckminsterfullerene) to distinguish the two concepts.

Understanding the Link between Neighborhoods and Kidney Disease.

Neighborhoods are where we live, learn, work, pray, and play. Growing evidence indicates that neighborhoods are an important determinant of health. The built features of our neighborhoods, such as the ways in which the streets are designed and connected and the availability of green spaces and transit stops, as well as the social features, such as the trust among neighbors and the perceptions of safety, may influence health through multiple pathways, such as access to important resources, psychosocial stress, and health behaviors.

Neighborhood socioeconomic status and risk of hospitalization in patients with chronic kidney disease: A chronic renal insufficiency cohort study.

Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) experience significantly greater morbidity than the general population. The hospitalization rate for patients with CKD is significantly higher than the general population. The extent to which neighborhood-level socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with hospitalization has been less explored, both in the general population and among those with CKD.

Life course trauma and muscle weakness in older adults by gender and race/ethnicity: Results from the U.S. health and Retirement Study.

Muscle weakness, as measured by handgrip strength, is a primary determinant of physical functioning and disability. There is a high burden of muscle weakness in the United States with close to 50 percent of older Americans meeting criteria for clinical muscle weakness. While previous racial/ethnic disparities have been documented among older adults, the extent to which lifecourse trauma shapes muscle strength trajectories is unknown.

Understanding the intersection of race and place: the case of tuberculosis in Michigan.

Background: Race and place intersect to produce location-based variation in disease distributions. We analyzed the geographic distribution of tuberculosis (TB) incidence in Michigan, USA to better understand the complex interplay between race and place, comparing patterns in Detroit, Wayne County and the state of Michigan as a whole.

Methods: Using cross-sectional TB surveillance data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, multivariable statistical models were developed to analyze the residence patterns of TB incidence from 2007 through 2012.

Interpreting Subjective and Objective Measures of Job Resources: The Importance of Sociodemographic Context.

Salutary retirement policy depends on a clear understanding of factors in the workplace that contribute to work ability at older ages. Research in occupational health typically uses either self-reported or objective ratings of the work environment to assess workplace determinants of health and work ability. This study assessed whether individual characteristics and work-related demands were differentially associated with (1) self-reported ratings of job resources from older workers in the Health and Retirement Study, and (2) corresponding objective ratings of job resources from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET).

Neighborhood Social Context and Kidney Function Over Time: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.

Rationale & Objective: Although socioeconomic status has been associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD), little is known about its relationship to residential neighborhood context.

Study Design: Secondary analysis of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), a prospective cohort study designed to investigate the development and progression of subclinical cardiovascular disease.

Setting & Participants: 6,814 men and women who were between 45 and 84 years of age and free of cardiovascular disease were recruited between 2000 and 2002 from Baltimore, MD; Chicago, IL; Forsyth County, NC; Los Angeles, CA; New York, NY; and St.

Neighbourhood racial/ethnic residential segregation and cardiometabolic risk: the multiethnic study of atherosclerosis.

Background: Racial residential segregation has been linked to adverse health outcomes, but associations may operate through multiple pathways. Prior studies have not examined associations of neighbourhood-level racial segregation with an index of cardiometabolic risk (CMR) and whether associations differ by race/ethnicity.

Methods: We used data from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis to estimate cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of baseline neighbourhood-level racial residential segregation with a composite measure of CMR.

Child and Adult Socioeconomic Status and the Cortisol Response to Acute Stress: Evidence From the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.

Objective: A long-hypothesized pathway through which low socioeconomic status (SES) harms health is through dysregulation of the physiologic stress response systems. No previous studies have tested this hypothesis by investigating cortisol reactivity and recovery to acute stress in relation to SES at different times in the life course in adults. Alteration of the cortisol response to an acute stressor could signal dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and has been associated with chronic illness.

Maternal Social Disadvantage and Newborn Telomere Length in Archived Dried Blood Spots from the Michigan Neonatal Biobank.

Telomeres are the protective caps at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. Short telomere length is associated with morbidity and mortality among adults and may mark the biological impact of social experiences. Using archived dried blood spots from the Michigan Neonatal Biobank, this study examined markers of maternal social disadvantage (educational attainment, receipt of public assistance, marital status, and race/ethnicity) from linked birth certificates as predictors of telomere length at birth in a sample of 192 singleton neonates born to non-Hispanic black, non-Hispanic white, and Latina mothers aged 20-35 years.

Measurement and modeling of race and health in Brazil: continuing the discussion.

Recent reviews have discussed the conceptualization of race in health studies in Brazil. This review further documents and discusses specific measurement and modeling issues with regard to race and how this can impact result interpretation. Three scientific databases were used to search the literature on race and three health outcomes.

Structural racism in the workplace: Does perception matter for health inequalities?

Structural racism has been linked to racial health inequalities and may operate through an unequal labor market that results in inequalities in psychosocial workplace environments (PWE). Experiences of the PWE may be a critical but understudied source of racial health disparities as most adults spend a large portion of their lives in the workplace, and work-related stress affects health outcomes. Further, it is not clear if the objective characteristics of the workplace are important for health inequalities or if these inequalities are driven by the perception of the workplace.

Association of Changes in Neighborhood-Level Racial Residential Segregation With Changes in Blood Pressure Among Black Adults: The CARDIA Study.

Importance: Despite cross-sectional evidence linking racial residential segregation to hypertension prevalence among non-Hispanic blacks, it remains unclear how changes in exposure to neighborhood segregation may be associated with changes in blood pressure.

Objective: To examine the association of changes in neighborhood-level racial residential segregation with changes in systolic and diastolic blood pressure over a 25-year period.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This observational study examined longitudinal data of 2280 black participants of the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, a prospective investigation of adults aged 18 to 30 years who underwent baseline examinations in field centers in 4 US locations from March 25, 1985, to June 7, 1986, and then were re-examined for the next 25 years.

The weight of racism: Vigilance and racial inequalities in weight-related measures.

In the United States, racial/ethnic inequalities in obesity are well-documented, particularly among women. Using the Chicago Community Adult Health Study, a probability-based sample in 2001-2003 (N = 3105), we examined the roles of discrimination and vigilance in racial inequalities in two weight-related measures, body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC), viewed through a cultural racism lens. Cultural racism creates a social environment in which Black Americans bear the stigma burden of their racial group while White Americans are allowed to view themselves as individuals.

Death by a thousand cuts: The health implications of black respectability politics.

The authors introduce the concept of "vigilance," capturing behaviors that reflect attempts to navigate racialized social spaces on a daily basis. Specifically, vigilant behaviors include care about appearance and language to be treated with respect, avoidance of social spaces, and psychological preparation for potential prejudice and discrimination. Furthermore, these behaviors align with those discussed in Black respectability politics debates.