Abstract P146: Association of Discriminatory Experiences on Sedentary Behaviors: The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study (CARDIA)

Abstract

Background: Sedentary behaviors such as television viewing or “playing games on the computer” are associated with obesity and increased cardiovascular risk. Little is known about the relationship between sedentary behaviors and adverse social contexts, particularly discriminatory experiences. Objective: To explore the cross-sectional relation of sedentary behavior and adverse social contexts in a large sample of middle-aged black and white men and women. Methods: Participants from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study with measures of discriminatory experiences and sedentary behaviors from the Year 25 exam in 2010 were included in the analysis (n=3,267). Participants were coded as experiencing discrimination if they responded yes to feeling discrimination based on gender, race, SES, or weight. The primary outcome variable, sedentary behavior, was defined by self-report as the overall number of hours per week spent in 6 behaviors: watching television, using the computer for non-work activities, listening to music, reading, talking on the phone, or texting. Linear regression was used to model the association of discrimination with sedentary time adjusted for age, race, gender, education and traditional CHD risk factors. Results: Participants were 50.2 years old (SD= 3.6), average time spent in sedentary behavior was 6.95 hrs/ day (SD=3.7), and 55% of the participants reported 1+ discriminatory experiences. In the full sample, there was a marginally significant positive relationship between discriminatory experiences and sedentary behavior (β=0.27, SE=0.3, p=.06), whereby participants who reported discrimination spent more time in sedentary behavior than those who did not report discrimination independent of demographic and traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Black participants spent more time sedentary than White participants (8.33 (SE=4.16) hrs/day vs. 5.78 (SE=2.75) hrs/day; p<.01), however, discriminatory experiences were only associated with sedentary behaviors among White participants (β=0.27, SE=0.1, p<.05). There were no differences in the relationship of discriminatory experiences with sedentary behavior by gender. Conclusions: The association of discriminatory experiences with sedentary behaviors was only present among White participants in the study. Future research should investigate other psychosocial factors that may be negatively associated with sedentary behaviors among Black Americans.