University of Limerick
Browse

State level income inequality affects cardiovascular stress responses:  Evidence from the midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study

Download (2.21 MB)
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-15, 09:41 authored by Megan RyanMegan Ryan, Stephen GallagherStephen Gallagher, Jolanda Jetten, Orla MuldoonOrla Muldoon

Rationale: The slow and insidious effects of income inequality on health means that their effects can be difficult to  reveal, taking many years to become apparent. These effects can also be experienced differently according to  subjective status and ethnicity making the relation between income inequality and health difficult to understand.  Cardiovascular reactions to acute stress are indicative of future health outcomes. Objective: To examine whether  short to medium term income inequality affected cardiovascular responses to acute stress whilst accounting for  ethnic groups and subjective status. Method: Participants state of residence was available for 1155 people who  participated in the MIDUS biomarker data project. This detail was used to merge the relevant US state level  inequality data 1, 5, 10 and 15 years prior to the MIDUS biomarker data project which assessed cardiovascular  responses to acute stress. Results: Our analysis demonstrated an association between inequality 5, 10 and 15 year  prior and cardiovascular reactions to acute stress. Subjective community status and Black and minority ethnic  group membership interacted to affect the association between inequality and cardiovascular reactions. Conclusions: In states where income inequality was high, less healthy cardiovascular responses were evident.  However lower subjective community status and Black and Ethnic minority group members interacted with  income inequality such that their impact was variable contingent on state level inequality. These findings extend  the literature on income inequality and health and particularly highlights a psychophysiology pathway linking  income inequality and health.  

Funding

A Social Identity Model of Trauma and Identity Change: A Novel Theory of Post-Traumatic Stress, Resilience and Growth

European Research Council

Find out more...

History

Publication

Social Science & Medicine 311,115359

Publisher

Elsevier

Department or School

  • Psychology

Usage metrics

    University of Limerick

    Categories

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC