Knowledge Bank

Minorities have long been discriminated against in the United States, and redlining policies pursued in the 1920s-60s prevented African-Americans from moving outside polluted inner city neighborhoods. This resulted in the siting of many environmentally hazardous facilities in these neighborhoods, exposing minorities to increased levels of air pollution that persist today. Exposure to air pollution is associated with low birth weight, asthma, diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, and obesity. Minorities also experience higher levels of perceived discrimination, a reliable predictor of chronic stress. Chronic stress leads to constant output of the stress hormone cortisol, which increases blood pressure, insulin resistance, cholesterol, and weight, and decreases immune function and memory. The effects of a lifetime of increased stress are hypothesized to compound the effects of disproportionate exposure to air pollution and make African-Americans more susceptible to diabetes, heart disease, stroke, obesity, and asthma than Whites. These disparate health outcomes culminate in a 10% decrease in life expectancy for African-Americans compared to their White counterparts (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). This study sought to explore the effects of stress on the well-established relationship between air pollution and health by analyzing self-reported health and stress data. Overall, health outcomes were best predicted by “classic” biologic indicators, such as age and BMI, and were somewhat well predicted by socioeconomic determinants of health such as income and education. Self-rated general health was well accounted for, with almost 30% of the variation in general health explained by our independent variables. We also found that respondents reporting higher stress levels were strongly more likely to report worse overall health and respondents living nearer to facilities were moderately more likely to report worse general health.