Onemda Unit and McCaughey Centre, Melbourne School of Population Health, University of Melbourne, Level 5, 207 Bouverie St, Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia.
Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2012 Feb;47(2):165-73. doi: 10.1007/s00127-010-0332-x. Epub 2010 Dec 14.
Racism is an important determinant of mental and physical health for minority populations. However, to date little is known about the relationship between racism and ill-health outside of the U.S. or the causal pathways between racism and poor health. This paper focuses on the relationship between racism and depression in a non-U.S. indigenous population, including examination of novel mediators and moderators.
One hundred and eighty-five adults in the Darwin Region Urban Indigenous Diabetes study responded to a validated instrument assessing multiple facets of racism. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Stress, optimism, lack of control, social connections, cultural identity and reactions/responses to interpersonal racism were considered as possible mediators and moderators in linear regression models.
Interpersonal racism was significantly associated with depression after adjusting for socio-demographic factors (β = 0.08, p < 0.001). Lack of control, stress, negative social connections and feeling ashamed, amused or powerless as reactions to racism were each identified as significant mediators of the relationship between racism and depressive symptoms. All examined mediators together accounted for 66% of the association between interpersonal racism and depressive symptoms.
This study demonstrates that racism is associated with depressive symptoms in an indigenous population. The mediating factors between racism and depressive symptoms identified in this study suggest new approaches to ameliorating the detrimental effects of racism on health.
种族主义是影响少数族裔群体身心健康的一个重要决定因素。然而，迄今为止，人们对美国以外的种族主义与健康不良之间的关系，或种族主义与健康不良之间的因果关系知之甚少。本文关注的是种族主义与非美国本土裔人群中抑郁之间的关系，包括对新的中介和调节因素的检验。
达尔文地区城市土著糖尿病研究中的 185 名成年人对评估种族主义多方面的有效工具做出了回应。采用流行病学研究中心抑郁量表评估抑郁症状。线性回归模型中考虑了应激、乐观、缺乏控制、社会联系、文化认同以及对人际种族主义的反应/应对作为可能的中介和调节因素。
在调整社会人口因素后，人际种族主义与抑郁显著相关（β=0.08，p<0.001）。缺乏控制、应激、消极的社会联系以及对种族主义的反应（感到羞愧、觉得有趣或无力）都被确定为种族主义与抑郁症状之间关系的重要中介因素。所有被检查的中介因素共同解释了人际种族主义和抑郁症状之间 66%的关联。
本研究表明，种族主义与土著人群的抑郁症状有关。本研究中确定的种族主义与抑郁症状之间的中介因素表明，需要采取新的方法来减轻种族主义对健康的不利影响。
