Race and Health

Question 1

Social institution

Answer 1

a system of behavioral and relationship patterns that order and structure the behavior of individuals in core areas of society

Question 2

Racialized institution

Answer 2

an institution where experiences differ based on people’s racial categorization

Question 3

How does an institution become racialized?

Answer 3

different pathways of entering, navigating, and experiencing the institution

Question 4

Institutional racism

Answer 4

the practices, both formal and accepted, within and across institutions that reproduce racial inequalities

Question 5

De jure racism

Answer 5

formal laws that promote racism

Question 6

De facto racism

Answer 6

accepted social norms that promote racism

Question 7

Structural racism

Answer 7

public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms that work to reinforce and perpetuate racial inequality, often so commonplace that they become status quo

Question 8

Systemic racism

Answer 8

structural racism + legacy of unequal distribution and how they interact with interpersonal discrimination that exists today

Question 9

What is different about systemic racism?

Answer 9

places an emphasis on the legacies of discrimination and how they interact with interpersonal discrimination that exists today

Question 10

Health outcome

Answer 10

some measurement of health, life expectancy, or other indication of physical or mental wellbeing

Question 11

Health disparity

Answer 11

difference in health outcomes exists between 2 subpopulations in a larger population

Question 12

Health inequity

Answer 12

a health disparity that is rooted in some unfair, unequal, or otherwise stratifying social process or circumstance

Question 13

Example of racial health disparity

Answer 13

mortality attributable to heart disease has declined much faster for white Americans than Black; emerged because of access to treatment (not biological difference)

Question 14

Sociological explanations for health inequities

Answer 14

socioeconomic differences by race, culture, racial discrimination and racism

Question 15

Are socioeconomic differences by race a reason for health inequities?

Answer 15

not a likely explanation for racial health disparities

Question 16

Socioeconomic status

Answer 16

anything that establishes differences in access to resources, broadly defined, and anything that contextualizes your engagement with resources

Question 17

Is “culture” an explanation for health inequities?

Answer 17

it possibly could be a reason

Question 18

Hispanic Health Paradox

Answer 18

Hispanic immigrants tend to have better health than native born immigrants or people from their home country

Question 19

Immigrant health selection

Answer 19

immigrants tend to be healthier, on average, than sending and receiving countries, and they tend to return to their host country as their health declines

Question 20

Acculturation

Answer 20

the process in which immigrants adapt to the new cultural norms

Question 21

Audits

Answer 21

is there different treatment if the only difference in social interaction is race

Question 22

Bertrand and Mullainathan study

Answer 22

sent several resumes out to the same jobs w/ only difference being name to reflect different race

Question 23

What were the results of the Bertrand and Mullainathan study?

Answer 23

white racially coded names were 50% more likely to receive a callback than their Black racially coded named counterparts

Question 24

Pager study

Answer 24

another job application audit study, racialized name and criminal records

Question 25

What were the results of the Pager study?

Answer 25

white applicants with a criminal record were more likely to get a callback than Black applicants without a criminal record

Question 26

Gaddis study

Answer 26

another job application study, changed racialized names and educational institutions

Question 27

What are the results of the Gaddis study?

Answer 27

white applicants from less selective schools are just as likely to receive a callback as Black applicants from selective schools

Question 28

What do race surveys study?

Answer 28

measures experiences of discrimination directly and different types of discrimination

Question 29

Major life discrimination

Answer 29

highly consequential instances of discrimination that have major disruptive or disadvantaging effects on social wellbeing, mental or physical health, finance or economic station, or social opportunity

Question 30

Everyday discrimination

Answer 30

discriminations in everyday interactions, settings, and circumstances that are often commonplace and routine in daily life

Question 31

Effects of high levels of discrimination on health

Answer 31

poorer health due to more stress/stressors

Question 32

What does increased stress everyday lead to

Answer 32

allostasis (changing things like cardiovascular and metabolic function, accelerated aging)

Question 33

Allostatic load

Answer 33

a composite score of several biomarkers that measure stress in the body; high allostatic load is associated with increased health risks

Question 34

What is the relationship between discrimination and health outcomes?

Answer 34

discrimination (major life and everyday)–> stress response (persistent unhealthy stress)–> increased allostatic load –> health consequences

Question 35

Life course

Answer 35

demographic framework for considering how health impacts individuals at different stages in life and physical development

Question 36

Epigenetics

Answer 36

the chemical environment around genetic material that influences how genes are expressed (methylation of chromosomes, does not change DNA)

Question 37

Critical period/biological imprinting

Answer 37

early life exposures biologically imprint or program health in ways that manifest in adulthood

Question 38

Cumulative/chains of risk

Answer 38

exposures from risk factors during childhood lead to higher risk exposures in adulthood

Question 39

Cumulative advantage and disadvantage

Answer 39

feedback loops of health disadvantage where poor health begets poor health

Question 40

Weathering hypothesis

Answer 40

the stress inherent in living in a race-conscious society that stigmatizes and disadvantages Black individuals and causes disproportionate physiological deterioration along racial lines

Question 41

Epigenetic change

Answer 41

changes to chemical environment around genetic sequence that influence expression or recession of genes

Question 42

Reproductive justice framework

Answer 42

the right to not have a child, but also the right to have children and to raise them with dignity in safe, healthy, and supportive environments

Question 43

Birth control

Answer 43

individuals trying to achieve their reproductive desires and states facilitating this right

Question 44

Population control

Answer 44

state defined population goals that may or may not represent individuals interests, state enforcing these goals

Question 45

4 dimensions of reproductive inequality

Answer 45

coercion in the birth control movement, unequal targeting of drug use during pregnancy, insufficient care during pregnancy/labor/delivery, unequal access to infertility treatment

Question 46

Coercion in the birth control movement

Answer 46

formal policy, informal practices, or limitations applied to people so that they do not have full agency or control over their fertility choices

Question 47

Unequal targeting of drug use during pregnancy

Answer 47

inequities of pregnancy drug testing out of fear of crack dependent babies

Question 48

Insufficient care during pregnancy, labor, and delivery

Answer 48

increased pressure to have a C section, reports of biased treatment, large amount of Black maternal mortalities

Question 49

Unequal access to infertility treatment

Answer 49

racial disparities in who experiences infertility