Studies Of Racial Differences Research Articles

Race and Sex Differences in Diabetic Complications in a Large Health Care System

Existing studies of racial differences in diabetic complications between African Americans and whites have provided conflicting results. The objective of this study was to investigate race and sex differences in diabetic complications between African-American and white patients in Louisiana’s largest integrated health delivery system. We performed a prospective cohort study of 28,218 African Americans and 31,237 whites with diabetes. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate the relative risk of each of four health outcomes between African Americans and whites. The age- and sex-adjusted incident rates per 1,000 person-years and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of coronary heart disease (CHD), heart failure, stroke, and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) for African-American patients with diabetes were 59.8 (95% CI 57.7-62.0), 43.5 (41.7-45.4), 34.0 (32.4-35.7), and 56.5 (53.8-59.3), respectively. Compared with African-American patients with diabetes, white patients with diabetes had a higher age- and sex-adjusted incident rate of CHD [63.3 (61.2-65.3)] and lower rates of heart failure [32.0 (30.6-33.4)], stroke [29.7 (28.4-31.1)] and ESRD [45.7 (44.0-47.4)]. Men with diabetes had higher age-adjusted incident rates of CHD, heart failure, and ESRD than women with diabetes. Results of the Cox proportional hazard models confirmed racial and sex differences observed in the age- and sex-adjusted incident rates. African Americans with diabetes have higher risks of heart failure, stroke and ESRD than white counterparts, whereas whites with diabetes have a higher risk of CHD than African-American counterparts. Disclosure P. Yin: None. L. Shi: None. E. Nauman: None. P.T. Katzmarzyk: None. E.G. Price-Haywood: None. A.N. Bazzano: None. Y. Shen: None. G. Hu: None.

Reciprocal Family, Friendship and Church Support Networks of African Americans: Findings from the National Survey of American Life.

This study examined reciprocal support networks involving extended family, friends and church members among African Americans. Our analysis examined specific patterns of reciprocal support (i.e., received only, gave only, both gave and received, neither gave or received), as well as network characteristics (i.e., contact and subjective closeness) as correlates of reciprocal support. The analysis is based on the African American sub-sample of the National Survey of American Life (NSAL). Overall, our findings indicate that African Americans are very involved in reciprocal support networks with their extended family, friends and church members. Respondents were most extensively involved in reciprocal supports with extended family members, followed closely by friends and church networks. Network characteristics (i.e., contact and subjective closeness) were significantly and consistently associated with involvement with reciprocal support exchanges for all three networks. These and other findings are discussed in detail. This study complements previous work on the complementary roles of family, friend and congregational support networks, as well as studies of racial differences in informal support networks.

Ethnoracial Differences in Early Union Experiences among Young Adult Women

This paper uses data from the 1997 cohort of National Longitudinal Study of Youth to examine racial differences in the first coresidential union experiences of young adult women in early adulthood. Young adults increasingly choose to delay marriage and opt to live with a significant other during their early adulthood years. Results from early studies of racial differences in relationship formation reported that Blacks had a higher probability that their first coresidential relationship was a cohabiting one despite a lower overall probability of being in a cohabiting relationship. Little is known about whether and how these early relationship experiences changed in the ensuing years, and the underlying causes for the racial differences in young adult union formation behaviors remain poorly understood. I use multivariate analyzes and decomposition techniques on a recent cohort of young women, between the ages of 12 and 18 in 1997, to examine the role of family background characteristics, sexual history, and economic and educational measures on the probability of an early coresidential relationship. I conclude with a brief examination of the fertility patterns surrounding that first union and the state of the union by age 24.

Barriers to Understanding Racial Differences in Intelligence: Commentary on Hunt and Carlson (2007).

Hunt and Carlson (2007), (this issue) present sensible guidelines for the conduct of research on group differences in intelligence. In this response, I want to indicate why I believe that their call for more research is not likely, in the near term, to lead to a clarification of the reasons for racial differences in performance on tests of intelligence. There are three barriers to progress in this field that I will consider. First, there are gaps in knowledge that render the interpretation of research problematic (see Brody, 2003, for a discussion of the indeterminate nature of research alleged to support a genetic basis for racial differences in intelligence). Second, structural inequalities in social arrangements may lead to problematic outcomes for many studies of racial differences in intelligence. Third, conceptual confusions derived from the consideration of race as a category and not as a continuum render group comparisons suspect.

Correcting the Corrections

This article is a comment on recent statements that the work of early IQ testers and other scientists has been distorted. It also argues that the Pioneer Fund, a major source of support for studies of racial differences, should release the full record of its grants to support statements made about the fund's purpose and history.

Neighborhood Social Structure and the Lives of Black and White Children

Abstract Studies of racial differences in socialization outcomes, such as school failure or success, juvenile delinquency, or teen pregnancy, usually fail to consider the neighborhood social structures that should, theoretically, influence these outcomes. Rather, researchers have often been content to “control” individual and family background characteristics and attribute the remaining racial difference to racial cultural differences and / or racial discrimination by whites. We found that large racial differences in neighborhood social structures remain after controlling family and economic structural characteristics often linked to socialization outcomes. Sociologists need to measure neighborhood as well as individual level characteristics within and between races before assessing racial differences in factors that press children toward one or another outcome.

Ethnic Differences in Cellular Ions and Transport

B ECAUSE the cellular regulation of sodium and other ions has been implicated in the pathogenesis and maintenance of hypertension, the study of ion transport has captured the attention of many researchers interested in the pathophysiology of hypertension. Several investigators have proposed that sodium metabolism by the kidney, not sodium intake, is the critical issue underlying the observed differences in the prevalence and characteristics of hypertension between blacks and whites in the United States. I Evaluation of racial/ethnic phenotypic differences in ion transport has provided data that suggest mechanisms by which a genetic or environmental factors may contribute to the twofold excess of hypertension in US blacks compared with whites. A caveat inherent in the interpretation of studies of racial differences relates to the genetic admixture of populations in the United States. Despite this limitation, however, certain trends have become apparent. Assessment of black/white differences in intracellular cations has pointed to sodium as the cation that is most consistently abnormal. Sodium interacts with other cations, notably calcium, and various cellular transport systems to increase vascular reactivity, often considered the basic pathway to essential hypertension. The primary mechanism proposed by a number of investigators whereby hypertension develops in this setting is that higher intracellular sodium increases activity of the sodium-calcium exchanger (Fig 1), thereby increasing intracellular calcium. The net effect is to enhance responsiveness to vasoactive

Race, Class, and Neighborhood: Differences in the Residential Return on Individual Resources

Using individual-level data from the neighborhood files of the 1970 Public Use Sample, the components of individual socioeconomic status (SES) education, occupation, and income-are treated as resources; and racial differences in the return on these resources, differences in neighborhood residential quality, are estimated, decomposed, and subjected to component analysis. It is documented that blacks receive a lesser return than whites; they reside in inferior neighborhoods despite similar resources. The notion is tested and supported that one mechanism explaining the lesser return is that blacks are channeled into predominantly black neighborhoods and are thus less able than whites to achieve class segregation. Channeling has a greater impact on economic factors than on social factors; on the latter, intraracial segregation seems more possible. As a final note, given the theoretical importance of community and neighborhood contexts, and thegeneral assumption in stratification theory that individual status (or parental status) is an adequate proxy for such context, a reexamination of studies of racial differences previously presumed to be net of class is suggested. The persistence of residential segregation by race has been demonstrated on many occasions (Erbe; Kantrowitz), and it has been shown to persist independent of occupational segregation and other forms of economic segregation (Duncan and Duncan; Kantrowitz; Simkus; Taeuber; Taeuber and Taeuber). Most recently, Simkus has demonstrated that up to one-fourth of occupational residential segregation can be attributed to racial segregation in both the occupational and residential distributions, and he redemonstrated the point that within-occupation residential racial segregation is extremely high. Using detailed tract level data from one SMSA, Erbe found that black professionals and managers, black college graduates, and blacks with incomes in excess of $25,000 lived in tracts comparable, respectively, to those of whites who were unskilled workers, school dropouts, and earned less than $3,000. Others have examined the effects of residential socioeconomic segregation, both structural effects (e.g., Morgan; Smith)

Black-White Differences in Aspirations Among Deep South High School Students

In recent years numerous studies have focused on the occupational aspirations of selected segments of the youth population.1 An area of special concem has been the apparently low levels of aspiration expressed by black youth. This concern has centered around a set of questionable assumptions dealing with the interplay between the aspirations of high school students and their subsequent occupational attainment. These assumptions, which may have definite implications for the design of action programs for black youth, can be briefly summarized: (1) black people in the U.S. have experienced a history of limited occupational attainment, i.e., limited in comparison to the attainment of the larger society; (2) high levels of occupational aspiration of high school students are thought to strongly encourage later high levels of occupational attainment; (3) studies of racial differences in occupational aspirations have often reported that black youth