Relationship Between Blood Pressure, Victimization, and Pro-Gun Carrying Attitudes Among Street-Identified Black Men and Women

• In Event: Guns and Places: Victimization Threats and Vulnerabilities

Abstract

Objectives. Examination of violent victimization and gun carrying attitudes as determinants of systolic blood pressure in a community sample of street-identified Black-Americans.

Methods. Survey data and blood pressure were collected from 358 street-identified Black-Americans (ages 16-54; 55.6% male) recruited from neighborhoods with high rates of gun violence using Street Participatory Action Research methodology.

Results. Systolic blood pressure was elevated as was exposure to severe forms of violent victimization (Figure 1). Exposure to violence showed a modest positive association with systolic blood pressure. Endorsement of pro-gun attitudes moderated the association of violence exposure with systolic pressure (Table 2; Figure 2), such that the link between violence exposure and systolic blood pressure at low levels of pro-gun carrying attitudes (p <0.001, 95%CI = 3.426/12.543) was no longer apparent at high levels of pro-gun attitudes (p =0.930, 95%CI = -3.997/4.370).

Conclusions. Positive attitudes about carrying guns (presumably indicative of pro-gun carrying behavior) weakened the impact of violence exposure on systolic pressure. These novel findings suggest carrying a gun may protect against the harmful effects of chronic stress from violence exposure on physical health outcomes like hypertension among street-identified Black-Americans.

Authors

• Yasser Arafat Payne, University of Delaware

• Brooklynn Hitchens, University of Maryland, College Park

• Naomi Samimi-Sadeh, University of Delaware

• Nadia Bounoua, University of Maryland, College Park