Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Association Between Adverse Childhood Experience, Perceived Discrimination and Body Mass Index in a National Sample of U.S. Older Adults

Abstract

The current study evaluated whether there were racial/ethnic differences in the association between childhood adverse experience (ACEs), perceived racial discrimination (PRD), and body mass index (BMI) in a sample of middle age and older adults. We used data from the 2012–2013 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (N = 11,404; ≥55 years) that included ACE and past year experiences with PRD. Generalized linear models were stratified by race/ethnicity (non-Hispanic White (NHW; n = 7337), non-Hispanic Black (NHB; n = 1960), and Hispanic (n = 1249)). The prevalence of ACE and PRD was significantly greater in NHB (63.6 and 29.8%, respectively) and Hispanic (61.2 and 15.9%, respectively), relative to NHW (53.1 and 4.6%, respectively). Across race/ethnicity, exposure to ACE’s was associated with significantly greater odds of reporting PRD. Surprisingly, among Hispanics, exposure to ACE’s was generally associated with lower BMI; however, this association was moderated by PRD in that BMI was highest among those with no ACE’s and PRD, and lowest among those without ACE’s or PRD. Similar, but not significant, trends were found for NHW’s and NHB’s. Our findings highlight the importance of screening for psychosocial adversity across the life course as risks factors for high BMI among middle age and older adults, particularly among Hispanics.

Keywords:

• Childhood adversity
• middle age and older adults
• obesity
• race/ethnicity
• racial discrimination

Acknowledgments

We express our sincere thanks to Ms. Stephanie Ramirez for her help with a portion of the literature review.

Disclosure statement

All authors do not have any conflict of interest to report.