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The enduring effects of racism on health: Understanding direct and indirect effects over time

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Sarah Stopforth, Dharmi Kapadia, James Nazroo, Laia Becares

Original languageEnglish
Article number101217
JournalSSM - Population Health
Volume19
Early online date2 Sep 2022
DOIs
Accepted/In press22 Aug 2022
E-pub ahead of print2 Sep 2022
PublishedSep 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information: We gratefully acknowledge the participants of Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study. This work was supported by the Nuffield Foundation ( LB, award WEL/43881 ), but the views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation. Laia Bécares, James Nazroo, and Dharmi Kapadia also received funding from the ESRC ( ES/W000849/1 ). Funding Information: This work was supported by the Nuffield Foundation (LB, award WEL/43881), but the views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation. Laia Bécares, James Nazroo, and Dharmi Kapadia also received funding from the ESRC (ES/W000849/1).We gratefully acknowledge the participants of Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study. This work was supported by the Nuffield Foundation (LB, award WEL/43881), but the views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation. Laia Bécares, James Nazroo, and Dharmi Kapadia also received funding from the ESRC (ES/W000849/1). Funding Information: This work was supported by the Nuffield Foundation ( LB, award WEL/43881 ), but the views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation. Laia Bécares, James Nazroo, and Dharmi Kapadia also received funding from the ESRC ( ES/W000849/1 ). Publisher Copyright: © 2022

King's Authors

Abstract

Experiences of racism and racial discrimination are associated with poorer mental and physical health outcomes for people from minoritised ethnic groups. One mechanism by which racism leads to poor health is through reduced socio-economic resources, but the evidence documenting the direct and indirect effects of racism on health via socio-economic inequality over time is under-developed. The central aims of this paper are to better understand how racism affects health over time, by age, and via the key mechanism of socio-economic inequality. This paper analyses large-scale, nationally representative data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (Understanding Society) 2009–2019. Findings from longitudinal structural equation models clearly indicate the enduring effects of racism on health, which operate over time both directly and indirectly through lower income and poorer prior health. Repeated exposure to racism severely and negatively impacts the health of people from minoritised ethnic groups. These findings make an important contribution to the existing evidence base, demonstrating the enduring effects of racism on health over time and across age groups.

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