Key result
Proposed Heart of Detroit study models pathways linking stress to CVD risk in 500 African Americans.
Why the study?
The full pathways and complexities by which psychosocial factors contribute to cardiovascular disease risk remain underexamined in African Americans.
Do interpersonal stressors predict poor cardiovascular outcomes, cumulative physiological stress, poor sleep, and inflammation in urban middle-aged and older African American adults?
Observational (n=500)
Do interpersonal stressors predict poor cardiovascular outcomes, cumulative physiological stress, poor sleep, and inflammation in urban middle-aged and older African American adults?
This study protocol outlines a longitudinal investigation into the biopsychosocial pathways linking stress, discrimination, and cardiovascular disease risk in urban African American adults.
BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease disproportionately affects African Americans. Psychosocial factors, including the experience of and emotional reactivity to racism and interpersonal stressors, contribute to the etiology and progression of cardiovascular disease through effects on health behaviors, stress-responsive neuroendocrine axes, and immune processes. The full pathway and complexities of these associations remain underexamined in African Americans. The Heart of Detroit Study aims to identify and model the biopsychosocial pathways that influence cardiovascular disease risk in a sample of urban middle-aged and older African American adults. METHODS: The proposed sample will be composed of 500 African American adults between the ages of 55 and 75 from the Detroit urban area. This longitudinal study will consist of two waves of data collection, two years apart. Biomarkers of stress, inflammation, and cardiovascular surrogate endpoints (i.e., heart rate variability and blood pressure) will be collected at each wave. Ecological momentary assessments will characterize momentary and daily experiences of stress, affect, and health behaviors during the first wave. A proposed subsample of 60 individuals will also complete an in-depth qualitative interview to contextualize quantitative results. The central hypothesis of this project is that interpersonal stressors predict poor cardiovascular outcomes, cumulative physiological stress, poor sleep, and inflammation by altering daily affect, daily health behaviors, and daily physiological stress. DISCUSSION: This study will provide insight into the biopsychosocial pathways through which experiences of stress and discrimination increase cardiovascular disease risk over micro and macro time scales among urban African American adults. Its discoveries will guide the design of future contextualized, time-sensitive, and culturally tailored behavioral interventions to reduce racial disparities in cardiovascular disease risk.
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Davis et al. (2023) conducted an observational in Cardiovascular disease risk (n=500). The Heart of Detroit Study is a proposed longitudinal study of 500 urban African American adults designed to model the biopsychosocial pathways linking psychosocial stress to cardiovascular disease risk.
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