Neighborhood violence, hair cortisol, and perceived stress among Black men living in a large urban city.

BACKGROUND

Exposure to social stress, such as neighborhood violence, affects the body's psychoneuroendocrinology, contributing to multiple chronic diseases. Hair cortisol concentration (HCC) is a novel proxy measure of chronic stress response. While Black Americans are exposed to social stress at a higher level, the association between violence exposure and HCC has not been extensively examined in older Black men. Intersectionality of race, gender, and class may disproportionately affect Black men to exposure to violence, thus, elevated HCC.

METHODS

Black men aged 45 and older were recruited from four barbershops in predominantly Black communities in Chicago. Hair samples were collected by barbers for HCC, and a set of survey questions concerning perceived stress, exposure to violence, and fear of crime were collected along with demographic characteristics and residential community area. Using the residential community area, the homicide and poverty rates were appended. Descriptive statistics and a two-level hierarchical regression were used to examine the association between HCC and individual- and neighborhood-level factors.

RESULTS

A total of 127 participants were included in the final analytic sample. The mean HCC was 22.3 pg/mg for those living in the lowest quartile homicide rates, while the mean HCC was 40.2 pg/mg for participants residing in the highest quartile homicide areas. Log-HCC was significantly correlated with homicide rate (r = .264, P < .01) and perceived violence exposure (r = .195, p = .028) but not with perceived stress (r = .100, p = .508) or fear of crime (r = .124, p = .136). Multilevel regression models showed that log-HCC was significantly higher for those living in the highest homicide quartile compared to HCC in the lowest quartile homicide rate (p < .01), controlling for age, being a current smoker, being married, being unemployed, and perceived stress, violence exposure, and fear of crime measures.

CONCLUSION

HCC was significantly higher for Black men residing in neighborhoods with high violence. The study highlights how Black men, particularly those in segregated urban areas, experience disproportionate exposure to social stressors such as neighborhood violence. The study findings demonstrate that multiple social positions compound exposure to systemic inequities, which results in elevated risk of mental and physical health conditions.