University of Michigan, United States.
University of Michigan, United States.
Brain Behav Immun. 2019 Jan;75:149-154. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2018.10.002. Epub 2018 Oct 24.
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Previous research suggests that everyday discrimination is associated with worse episodic memory and partially mediates Black-White disparities in memory aging. The biological mechanisms underlying the link between everyday discrimination and memory are unclear but may involve inflammatory processes. This study aimed to determine whether systemic inflammation, indexed by blood levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), mediates associations between everyday discrimination and episodic memory over 6 years.
A longitudinal mediation model quantified associations between baseline everyday discrimination, 4-year change in CRP, and 6-year change in episodic memory.
The Health and Retirement Study (HRS).
12,624 HRS participants aged 51 and older.
Everyday Discrimination Scale, high-sensitivity CRP assays of dried blood spots, composite scores of immediate and delayed recall of a word list.
Black participants reported greater everyday discrimination. Greater discrimination was associated with lower baseline memory and faster memory decline. Higher CRP at baseline partially mediated the negative association between discrimination and baseline memory, but CRP change did not mediate the association between discrimination and memory decline.
This U.S.-representative longitudinal study provides evidence for deleterious effects of discrimination on subsequent episodic memory. The fact that elevated CRP only partially explained the concurrent association between discrimination and memory highlights the need for more comprehensive investigations of biological mechanisms underlying the link between social stress and age-related memory decline in order to better characterize potential intervention targets to reduce racial inequalities in memory aging.
背景/目的：先前的研究表明，日常歧视与较差的情景记忆有关，并部分介导了黑人和白人在记忆老化方面的差异。日常歧视与记忆之间联系的生物学机制尚不清楚，但可能涉及炎症过程。本研究旨在确定系统性炎症（以血液 C 反应蛋白（CRP）水平为指标）是否介导了日常歧视与情景记忆之间的 6 年关联。
纵向中介模型量化了基线日常歧视、4 年 CRP 变化与 6 年情景记忆变化之间的关联。
健康与退休研究（HRS）。
12624 名年龄在 51 岁及以上的 HRS 参与者。
日常歧视量表、干血斑高敏 CRP 测定、单词列表即时和延迟回忆的综合评分。
黑人参与者报告了更多的日常歧视。歧视程度越高，基线记忆越低，记忆下降速度越快。基线 CRP 较高部分解释了歧视与基线记忆之间的负相关，但 CRP 变化并未介导歧视与记忆下降之间的关联。
这项具有美国代表性的纵向研究为歧视对随后的情景记忆的有害影响提供了证据。CRP 升高仅部分解释了歧视与记忆之间的同期关联，这突出表明需要更全面地研究社会压力与年龄相关记忆衰退之间联系的生物学机制，以便更好地描述潜在的干预目标，以减少记忆老化方面的种族不平等。
