Health consequences of structural sexism: Conceptual foundations, empirical evidence and priorities for future research.

A nascent body of work has begun exploring the health consequences of structural sexism. This article provides an overview of the concept of structural sexism and an elaboration of the potential pathways connecting it to health. Next, it reviews existing measurement approaches and the current state of empirical evidence on the relationship between structural sexism and health in the United States.

Structural Racism and Health Stratification: Connecting Theory to Measurement.

Less than 1% of studies on racialized health inequities have empirically examined their root cause: structural racism. Moreover, there has been a disconnect between the conceptualization and measurement of structural racism. This study advances the field by (1) distilling central tenets of theories of structural racism to inform measurement approaches, (2) conceptualizing U.

Income Support Policy Packages and Birth Outcomes in U.S. States: An Ecological Analysis.

Research suggests that generous social welfare programs play a role in maternal and child health. However, most studies examine a single policy in isolation. Drawing from research documenting low-income families 'packaging' of social policies, we create a novel measure summarizing the value of a collection of income support policies for the working poor.

Structural Sexism and Preventive Health Care Use in the United States.

Preventive health care use can reduce the risk of disease, disability, and death. Thus, it is critical to understand factors that shape preventive care use. A growing body of research identifies structural sexism as a driver of population health, but it remains unknown if structural sexism is linked to preventive care use and, if so, whether the relationship differs for women and men.

Racialized Health Inequities: Quantifying Socioeconomic and Stress Pathways Using Moderated Mediation.

Racism drives population health inequities by shaping the unequal distribution of key social determinants of health, such as socioeconomic resources and exposure to stressors. Research on interrelationships among race, socioeconomic resources, stressors, and health has proceeded along two lines that have largely remained separate: one examining differential effects of socioeconomic resources and stressors on health across racialized groups (moderation processes), and the other examining the role of socioeconomic resources and stressors in contributing to racial inequities in health (mediation processes). We conceptually and analytically integrate these areas using race theory and a novel moderated mediation approach to path analysis to formally quantify the extent to which an array of socioeconomic resources and stressors-collectively and individually-mediate racialized health inequities among a sample of older adults from the Health and Retirement Study.

The Future of Social Determinants of Health: Looking Upstream to Structural Drivers.

Policy Points Policies that redress oppressive social, economic, and political conditions are essential for improving population health and achieving health equity. Efforts to remedy structural oppression and its deleterious effects should account for its multilevel, multifaceted, interconnected, systemic, and intersectional nature. The U.

Assessing the role of collectivism and individualism on COVID-19 beliefs and behaviors in the Southeastern United States.

America's unique response to the global COVID-19 pandemic has been both criticized and applauded across political and social spectrums. Compared to other developed nations, U.S.

How social policies shape the health and well-being of sexual- and gender-minority youth: Pathways of influence, social side effects and implications for life course trajectories.

Recent research has documented the harmful health consequences of structural-level stigma that targets sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals. In the case of sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY), life trajectories are shaped not only by targeted, SGM-focused policies, but also by social policies more broadly which may have unique impacts on SGMY given their social position. However, little work has explored the pathways that connect both targeted and universal social policies and the health and well-being of SGMY.

Empirical evidence on structural racism as a driver of racial inequities in COVID-19 mortality.

Objective: This study contributes to the literature by empirically testing the extent to which place-based structural racism is a driver of state-level racial inequalities in COVID-19 mortality using theoretically-informed, innovative approaches.

Methods: CDC data are used to measure cumulative COVID-19 death rates between January 2020 and August 2022. The outcome measure is a state-level Black-White (B/W) ratio of age-adjusted death rates.

Sick And Tired Of Being Excluded: Structural Racism In Disenfranchisement As A Threat To Population Health Equity.

Theoretical research suggests that racialized felony disenfranchisement-a form of structural racism-is likely to undermine the health of Black people, yet empirical studies on the topic are scant. We used administrative data on disproportionate felony disenfranchisement of Black residents across US states, linked to geocoded individual-level health data from the 2016 Health and Retirement Study, to estimate race-specific regression models describing the relationship between racialized disenfranchisement and health among middle-aged and older adults, adjusting for other individual- and state-level factors. Results show that living in states with higher levels of racialized disenfranchisement is associated with more depressive symptoms, more functional limitations, more difficulty performing instrumental activities of daily living, and more difficulty performing activities of daily living among Black people.

Improving The Measurement Of Structural Racism To Achieve Antiracist Health Policy.

Antiracist health policy research requires methodological innovation that creates equity-centered and antiracist solutions to health inequities by centering the complexities and insidiousness of structural racism. The development of effective health policy and health equity interventions requires sound empirical characterization of the nature of structural racism and its impact on public health. However, there is a disconnect between the conceptualization and measurement of structural racism in the public health literature.

Structural Heteropatriarchy and Birth Outcomes in the United States.

Emerging evidence links structural sexism and structural discrimination against lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) populations to poor health outcomes, but studies have yet to examine the combined effects of these mutually reinforcing systems of inequality. Therefore, we developed a composite measure of structural heteropatriarchy-which includes state-level LGB policies, family planning policies, and indicators of structural sexism (e.g.

Structural Intersectionality as a New Direction for Health Disparities Research.

This article advances the field by integrating insights from intersectionality perspectives with the emerging literatures on structural racism and structural sexism-which point to promising new ways to measure systems of inequality at a macro level-to introduce a approach to population health. We demonstrate an application of structural intersectionality using administrative data representing macrolevel structural racism, structural sexism, and income inequality in U.S.

Gender Disparities in Life Satisfaction After Retirement: The Roles of Leisure, Family, and Finances.

Background And Objectives: Recent research on life satisfaction in retirement explores gender differences but yields inconsistent patterns and does not consider gendered sources of satisfaction. We use a gender relations framework to examine whether women and men experience different changes in life satisfaction with retirement, and whether observed differences are a consequence of different assessments of the leisure, family, and financial situations that characterize their post-retirement lives.

Research Design And Methods: We use longitudinal data drawn from men and women in the Health and Retirement Study who transitioned into retirement between ages 62 and 72 for the first time between 2008 and 2016 (N = 593).

The Color of COVID-19: Structural Racism and the Disproportionate Impact of the Pandemic on Older Black and Latinx Adults.

Objectives: The aim of this evidence-based theoretically informed article was to provide an overview of how and why the COVID-19 outbreak is particularly detrimental for the health of older Black and Latinx adults.

Methods: We draw upon current events, academic literature, and numerous data sources to illustrate how biopsychosocial factors place older adults at higher risk for COVID-19 relative to younger adults, and how structural racism magnifies these risks for black and Latinx adults across the life course.

Results: We identify 3 proximate mechanisms through which structural racism operates as a fundamental cause of racial/ethnic inequalities in COVID-19 burden among older adults: (a) risk of exposure, (b) weathering processes, and (c) health care access and quality.

Political gender inequality and infant mortality in the United States, 1990-2012.

Although gender inequality has been recognized as a crucial factor influencing population health in the developing world, research has not yet thoroughly documented the role it may play in shaping U.S. infant mortality rates (IMRs).