Extreme racism-related events and poor sleep in African-American women

Izraelle I McKinnon; Dayna A Johnson; Raphiel J Murden; Christy L Erving; Rachel Parker; Miriam E Van Dyke; Viola Vaccarino; Bianca Booker; Renee H Moore; Tené T Lewis

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115623

Extreme racism-related events and poor sleep in African-American women

Soc Sci Med. 2023 Jan:316:115623. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115623. Epub 2022 Dec 27.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Epidemiology (I.I.M., D.A.J., M.E.V.D., V.V., T.T.L.), Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA.
² Department of Biostatistics (R.J.M., R.P.), Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA.
³ Vanderbilt University (C.L.E.), Department of Sociology, 2301 Vanderbilt Place, 201E Garland Hall, Nashville, TN, 37235-1811, USA.
⁴ Department of Epidemiology (I.I.M., D.A.J., M.E.V.D., V.V., T.T.L.), Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA; From the Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine (V.V.), Emory University, School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA.
⁵ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics (R.H.M), Drexel University, Dornsife School of Public Health, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.
⁶ Department of Epidemiology (I.I.M., D.A.J., M.E.V.D., V.V., T.T.L.), Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA. Electronic address: tene.t.lewis@emory.edu.

PMID: 36581549
DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115623

Abstract

Rationale: Much of the research linking racism-related stressors to poor health has focused on fairly non-violent forms of racism that directly impact individuals under study. Exposure to particularly extreme and/or violent racist events are increasingly visible via smartphone recordings and social media, with consistent anecdotal reports of the effects of seeing and hearing about these events on sleep among minorities who racially identify with the victims.

Objective: This study examines whether exposure to direct and vicarious racism-related events (RREs), including more extreme events, are associated with sleep quality. Additionally, we examine effects of less and more violent direct RREs and vicarious RREs witnessed in person and via social media.

Methods: Among 422 African-American women, we assessed exposure to RREs using a modified version of the Race-Related Events Scale and assessed sleep quality using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Linear regression analyses were used to model continuous global sleep.

Results: Direct (β = 0.24 [95% CI: 0.13, 0.35]) RREs were associated with worse continuous global sleep quality scores in analyses adjusted for sociodemographics and risk factors for poor sleep. More violent direct RREs (β = 0.59 [95% CI: 0.30, 0.89]) had stronger associations with poor sleep quality than less violent direct RREs (β = 0.25 [95% CI: 0.11, 0.40]). Vicarious RREs overall (β = 0.04 [95% CI: 0.14, 0.21]) and those witnessed via social media (β = -0.07 [95% CI: 0.29, 0.14]) were not associated with global sleep quality; conversely, vicarious RREs witnessed in person were (β = 0.52 [95% CI: 0.21, 0.83]).

Conclusion: Extreme, direct experiences of racism, particularly those that are violent in nature, are associated with poor sleep quality. However, extreme vicarious experiences are not-- unless witnessed in person.

Keywords: African-americans; Social determinants of health; Social media; racism; sleep; vicarious trauma; women.

MeSH terms

Black or African American
Female
Humans
Minority Groups
Racism*
Sleep
Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders*