Michigan State University College of Human Medicine Department of Family Medicine

Posted in Research

People: Victoria Fisher, Nadia Abuelezam

In this paper, we argue that “umbrella” variables for socioeconomic status frequently used in vulnerability or disadvantage indices (i.e. “no college + unemployment + renting + public insurance, etc), mask how mechanisms of structural racism are differentially related to each other. One would not cease to have a bachelor’s degree the way one might lose a job. Distinguishing common SES variables by “duration of exposure” into ‘historical disenfranchisement’ and ‘contemporary disadvantage’, we show that it is important to consider the temporal nature of structural racism mechanisms in population health outcomes.

Read the article here.

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