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Use of ethnogenetic layering to identify and quantify geographically localized sources of chronic stress and their impact on health among African Americans
Author(s) -
Jackson Fatimah LC,
Hardin Jesse
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.25.1_supplement.lb276
Subject(s) - stressor , disadvantaged , vulnerability (computing) , allostatic load , environmental health , disadvantage , psychological intervention , health equity , disease , demography , medicine , psychology , gerontology , geography , public health , clinical psychology , pathology , sociology , political science , psychiatry , computer security , computer science , law
Economically and socially disadvantaged African Americans have faced a number of important sources of chronic physiological and psychological stressors that have contributed to an increased vulnerability to poor health. Although there appears to be a direct relationship between economic and social disadvantage and health disparities, the sources and precise impact of such stressors often remain inadequately quantified. The strain of discrimination is associated with unequal exposures to stress and unequal access to ameliorative interventions throughout the lifespan, across geographical space, and over multiple generations. Applying the allostatic stress process model to GIS‐facilitated ethnogenetic layering, we present data that suggests that stress and its sequelae can be predicted, identified, and quantified for the purposes of addressing health disparities. Protracted adversity responses are correlated with increased vulnerabilities to infection, injury, and disease and increases in the associated selective coefficients for exposed groups. We report on the development of computer‐assisted models that quantify the intensity and duration of particular stressors and detail their roles in health disparities.