Department of Population Health Sciences, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.
Am J Public Health. 2010 Apr 1;100 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):S36-40. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2009.171140. Epub 2010 Feb 10.
Equity and social well-being considerations make Black-White health disparities an area of important concern. Although previous research suggests that discrimination- and poverty-related stressors play a role in African American health outcomes, the mechanisms are unclear. Allostatic load is a concept that can be employed to demonstrate how environmental stressors, including psychosocial ones, may lead to a cumulative physiological toll on the body. We discuss both the usefulness of this framework for understanding how discrimination can lead to worse health among African Americans, and the challenges for conceptualizing biological risk with existing data and methods. We also contrast allostatic load with theories of historical trauma such as posttraumatic slavery syndrome. Finally, we offer our suggestions for future interdisciplinary research on health disparities.
公平和社会福利的考虑使得黑人和白人之间的健康差距成为一个重要的关注点。尽管之前的研究表明，与歧视和贫困相关的压力源在非裔美国人的健康结果中起着一定的作用，但其中的机制尚不清楚。适应负荷是一个可以用来解释环境压力源（包括心理社会压力源）如何导致身体累积的生理损耗的概念。我们讨论了这个框架对于理解歧视如何导致非裔美国人健康状况恶化的有用性，以及在现有数据和方法下对生物风险进行概念化的挑战。我们还将适应负荷与创伤后奴隶制综合征等历史创伤理论进行了对比。最后，我们为健康差异的未来跨学科研究提供了建议。
