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Background Interpersonal discrimination is linked to greater risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and this association varies by race/ethnicity. Purpose To examine whether exposure to everyday discrimination prospectively predicts elevated blood pressure (BP), whether this association differs by race/ethnicity, and is mediated by adiposity indices. Methods Using data for 2,180 self-identified White, Black, Chinese, Japanese, and Hispanic participants from the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation, we examined associations among exposure to (higher vs. lower) everyday discrimination at baseline and BP and hypertension (HTN; systolic blood pressure [SBP] ≥ 140 mmHg; diastolic blood pressure [DBP] ≥ 90 mmHg; or self-reported HTN medication use) risk over a 10 year period. Additionally, we used the bootstrap method to assess repeated, time-varying markers of central and overall adiposity (waist circumference and body mass index [BMI] (kg/m2), respectively) as potential mediators. Results Exposure to everyday discrimination predicted increases in SBP and DBP over time, even after adjusting for known demographic, behavioral, or medical risk factors. However, greater waist circumference or BMI (examined separately) mediated these observations. Notably, there were no racial/ethnic differences in the observed association and HTN risk was not predicted. Conclusions The current findings suggest that everyday discrimination may contribute to elevated BP over time in U.S. women, in part, through increased adiposity. These findings demonstrate the complexity of the linkage of discrimination to CVD risk and raise the need to closely examine biobehavioral pathways that may serve as potential mediators.

Objective: Studies have linked self-reported discrimination to telomere attrition, a biological marker of accelerated cellular aging. However, it is unknown whether intersections between social categories—race, socioeconomic status (SES), sex, and age—influence the association of varying forms of discrimination with telomere length. We examined these associations in a socioeconomically and racially/ethnically diverse urban sample. Methods: Cross-sectional data were from 341 middle-aged (30–64 years) African American and White, community participants in the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span Study (HANDLS). Multiple regression models examined up to 3-way interactions between a discrimination measure (i.e., everyday, racial, gender, lifetime burden, and frequency of discrimination across sources) and two social categories. Results: After adjusting for depressive symptoms, waist circumference, and lifetime substance use, two themes emerged: 1) among women with higher SES, a) greater lifetime discrimination burden (b = −0.23, p = .011), gender discrimination (b = −0.29, p = .040), and racial discrimination (b = −0.24, p = 0.023) and 2) among younger adults, irrespective of race and sex, greater frequency of discrimination across sources (b = 0.002, p = .008) was associated with shorter telomeres. Conclusions: Irrespective of race, women with higher SES and younger adults reporting greater discrimination may be at particular risk for accelerated aging. Telomere attrition promotes and accelerates chronic health conditions for which there are health disparities. Future research explicating intersections among specific discrimination indices and social categories is warranted.

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