Racial Discrimination and Stigma Consciousness Are Associated with Higher Blood Pressure and Hypertension in Minority Men.

OBJECTIVE: We examined whether lifetime racial discrimination and stigma consciousness (expecting to be stigmatized) are associated with blood pressure in minority and White middle-aged and older adult men.

DESIGN: Participants were 1533 men (mean age = 63.2 [SD = 7.9, range = 37.4-89.2]; 12.4 % Black, 7.8 % Hispanic, 2.0 % other) diagnosed with clinically localized prostate cancer. We separately modeled associations between discrimination/stigma consciousness and blood pressure outcomes for minorities and Whites controlling for education, income, employment status, age, marital status, BMI, and recruitment site.

RESULTS: Minorities reported more racial discrimination and stigma consciousness than Whites (ps < .001). For minorities, having experienced more racial discrimination was associated with having higher diastolic blood pressure (B = 0.15, p = .016) and having greater stigma consciousness was associated with greater odds of having hypertension (OR = 1.04, p = .047). Greater stigma consciousness was associated with lower systolic blood pressure in Whites (B = -0.24, p = .012).

CONCLUSION: Discrimination and stigma consciousness are associated with common risk factors for chronic disease and premature death that disproportionately affect minorities. Findings for stigma consciousness suggest that anticipatory vigilance may be impacting minority health.