Jessie Kemmick Pintor, PhD, assistant professors in the Dornsife School of Public Health, and colleagues detail the effects of structural racism on the health of immigrants in the U.S. The authors provide evidence that chronic exposure to racism leads to worsening health over time among immigrants, particularly among those who are Black or Latinx. The authors look at allostatic load – a comprehensive measure of the body’s response to stressors during a lifespan – in both immigrants and non-immigrants across racial/ethnic groups to put a spotlight on health disparities among groups.
The authors studied the 2005-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination survey and found that allostatic load increases with age among all groups, but at much steeper rates among Black immigrants of both genders and Latina immigrants. They argue that these findings should inform new laws to close these gaps and address structural inequities, such as access to safe housing, education, health care or healthy food.