Race and Unhealthy Behaviors: Chronic Stress, the HPA Axis, and Physical and Mental Health Disparities Over the Life Course

We sought to determine whether unhealthy behaviors play a stress-buffering role in observed racial disparities in physical and mental health.

We conducted logistic regressions by race on data from the first 2 waves of the Americans' Changing Lives Survey to determine whether unhealthy behaviors had buffering effects on the relationship between major stressors and chronic health conditions, and on the relationship between major stressors and meeting the criteria for major depression.