Profiles of Stress: Is Early Life Adversity Associated with Sleep Disturbance among Older Black Americans?

• In Event: Open Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 12: Health Inequalities

Abstract

Poor sleep is detrimental to health and is associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, and poor mental health. Older adults face additional health risk from insufficient sleep including increased risk from falls, reduced mobility, and cognitive decline. A growing body of research indicates that structural inequalities related to the residential segregation, perceived discrimination, work-related stress and discrimination contribute to poor sleep for Black Americans. For many cohorts of older Black Americans an understudied factor that also contributes to sleep disturbance is early life adversity (ELA). Guided by cumulative inequality theory we investigate the association between ELA and sleep disturbance among older Black Americans by 1) estimating early life adversity profiles, or latent classes and 2) assessing whether these profiles are predictive of later life sleep disturbance. Utilizing nationally representative data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we employ a person-centered approach, which allows for the interrelation among early life stressors that may more accurately contextualize early life exposure to childhood adversity. Preliminary findings reveal three latent class profiles. We contribute to sleep health research by identifying early life adversity experiences that demarcate unique subgroups among Black Americans. We then assess how group membership is associated with sleep health in later life for Black Americans.

Authors

• Cleothia Frazier, Pennsylvania State University

• Brittany Nicole Hearne, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign