Stress related to discrimination and poverty is shortening lives in the United States. Here’s what experts say can be done about it.
Stress can take a toll not just mentally, but also physically and even financially. A new study finds that certain socioeconomic and ethnic groups in the United States face a high burden of systematic stressors, putting them at increased risk for a variety of health hazards and reducing their life expectancy.
在extensive reportreleased today by the American Psychological Association, mental health experts synthesized research on stress and health among certain socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic groups to show the long-term effects of stress.
Elizabeth Brondolo, PhD, a study co-author and chair of the Working Members Group, said the point of the report is to reveal the many ways stress can take a human toll.
她告诉Healthline：“压力的问题是这是一个很大的概念。”雷竞技app官网“当人们考虑它时，他们常常会感到不知所措，或者他们不确定如何概念化它，如何衡量它或如何思考真正的临床含义。”
She said the group wanted to break down the concept “to focus on stress in explaining disparities or contributing to disparities by race and or ethnicity or socioeconomic status.”
The results of stress from socioeconomic inequality can be found in curtailed life expectancy and lost income.
根据该报告，在收入中排名前1％的男性寿命比最低1％的人长了近15年。
对于女性来说，差异是长寿的10年。
压力不仅会影响一个人的心理健康。它还给身体造成身体伤害。当一个人受到压力时，释放炎症激素。这增加了心血管和癌症风险，除其他问题外。
结果，作者指出，压力导致“事故，旷工，员工流失，生产率下降以及直接医疗，法律和保险费用”，每年损失3000亿美元。
Brondolo pointed out that living in certain areas that are more violent and also segregated from surrounding communities can result in enough stress to affect a person’s way of thinking.
“If you live in a highly threatening environment and there’s few protections, you’re going to develop different ways of thinking and responding than you if you live in a more supportive environment,” she said.
布隆多洛说，研究人员的目标是强调缺乏资源，并帮助这些团体所面临的压力增加。
她说：“这并不是每个人的生活都没有压力，而是他们有不同种类的压力，而需求和资源之间的差距对于某些群体来说尤其很大。”
“One finding is that if you are, for example, a low-income white child, you are more likely to live in a neighborhood that’s middle class,” she said. “That means you have access to the social capital.”
She explained this can mean there’s more support if a low-income child doesn’t have something as basic as a calculator. Their neighbor or friend might have one they can borrow.
In addition, if parents are busy, other parents can pick children up from school.
布朗多洛还解释了种族如何在慢性压力的风险中发挥作用。
Being discriminated against has clear impacts on health.
People who report being discriminated against are more likely to have higher blood pressure readings.
一些研究发现，这种血压升高持续整夜，表明人们的身体无法通过歧视造成的与压力相关的损害来修复。
作者写道：“同样，持续的歧视与正常昼夜节律的中断有关。”
A disrupted circadian rhythm or interrupted sleep can also put people at risk for a variety of health risks, including cardiovascular disease.
Long-term stress or “chronic” stress can actually change the way the brain works.
通常，一旦压力大事结束，一个人的压力荷尔蒙将恢复到基准。但是慢性压力会影响该系统，使一个人无法恢复基线。
作者写道：“这些压力暴露可能会导致基因表达的变化，对神经生物学结构和过程产生广泛影响。”
Dr. Ramani Durvasula, a professor of psychology at California State University, Los Angeles, said this report should be a “wake-up call” for people in psychology, social work, and public health to take action.
“The structures are broken,” she told Healthline.
Durvasula pointed out that doctors can advise action for lessening stress, but these may not go far enough at the root of stress.
“In fact, people occupying these groups are often ‘blamed’ for their lack of resource, which lifts the blame off of making structural changes: affordable health care, income equality, fair taxation systems, higher quality education for all SES (socioeconomic) strata, better policies for working parents. The list is endless.”
Durvasula said without structural changes to lessen the stress burden on these groups and not stopping the narrative of blaming poor people for being poor, there’s little chance for meaningful change.
“那怪变成了一个压力源,”她说。“Stress impacts an individual in numerous ways — immune function, endocrine function, pain modulation, psychiatric symptomatology, cardiovascular function — and impacts cognitive elements of the person, such as perceptions of control, hopelessness, helplessness, and agency.”
杜瓦苏拉（Durvasula）解释说，该报告显示了许多最贫穷的美国人如何帮助减轻压力，而是如何增加压力。
“我们的医疗保健系统通常非常惩罚。Those who need them most… are often the ones who can’t get transport to appointments, are forced to make them months in advance and then hold jobs that don’t provide the flexibility to change hours, who can’t get child care, who face evictions or other residential instability that can make continuity of care difficult,” she said. “These folks are often charged cancellation fees, forced to wait months for another appointment, have longer wait times, and face byzantine insurance systems.”
杜瓦苏拉（Durvasula）说，公共卫生，医学专家和心理健康专家都需要开始共同努力，以改变系统的压力源，以帮助最有风险的人。
“作为一名心理学家，我只能说我们需要摆脱对个人的关注，并开始专注于系统。否则，我们在与这些人群合作时会遇到残酷的骗局。”她说。