Year: 2010
Type: editorial
Abstract: Weathering-the cumulative burden of adverse psychosocial and economic circumstances on the bodies of minority women-has been repeatedly described in epidemiologic studies. The most common application has been the documentation of rapidly increasing risks of adverse birth outcomes as African-American women age. Previous work has been based largely on cross-sectional data that aggregate women across a variety of socioeconomic circumstances. When more specific information about women's life-course socioeconomic status is taken into account, however, heterogeneity in the weathering experience of African-American women becomes more readily apparent. Adverse birth outcome risk trajectories with advancing age for African-American women who reside in wealthier neighborhoods look much more similar to those of white women. The accompanying article by Love et al. (Am J Epidemiol. 2010;172(2):127-134) provides a more nuanced investigation of the social conditions that contribute to the weathering of African-American women and points to the critical role played by social and economic conditions over the life course in producing adverse birth outcome disparities.
Source: American Journal of Epidemiology
DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwq107
Authors: L. C. Messer, J. S. Kaufman
Institution: Duke University
Language: English
Subfield: Health
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2158169032