ABSTRACT
Objective
African American women are exposed to multiple adverse psychosocial factors, including racism, discrimination, poverty, neighborhood stress, anxiety, and depression. The impact of these psychosocial factors on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in women during early adulthood is limited. This review aims to summarize and synthesize the recent literature on psychosocial factors related to CVD risk in young African American women.
Methods
We conducted a comprehensive search of the literature in PubMed, APA PsycINFO, and CINAHL. We systematically reviewed the literature for studies examining associations between psychosocial factors (e.g. racism, discrimination, neighborhood stress, anxiety) and CVD risk factors (e.g. body mass index [BMI], blood pressure, diabetes) in African American women age 19–24 years. Eligible studies measured at least one psychosocial factor, a CVD risk factor, and included young adult African American women (age 19–24) or reported sex-stratified analyses.
Results
We identified nine studies that met our inclusion criteria: six cross-sectional and three longitudinal studies. Of these, eight studies reported that psychosocial factors (i.e. perceived stress, racial discrimination, internalized racism, depression) are related to higher BMI and blood pressure. The majority of studies were conducted among college students or had a small sample size (<200). The quality of six studies was rated as excellent; the remainder were good and fair.
Conclusions
Findings from this review suggest that exposure to adverse psychosocial factors may be related to increased CVD risk in early adulthood (age 19–24) in African American women. However, larger prospective analyses are necessary to examine these associations.
Acknowledgments
We want to acknowledge and thank Mrs. Jamie Conklin, Health Sciences Librarian and Liaison to Nursing, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for her assistance with the literature search for this systematic review.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Author Contributions
Authors contributed to the works as follows: study conception and design (LKH, DCB, YIC), acquisition of data (LKH, YIC), analysis (LKH, YIC), interpretation of data (LKH, DCB, YIC), drafting of manuscript (LKH, DCB, YIC). All authors gave final approval of the version submitted for publication.
Disclosure statement
No competing financial interests exist.