History of Racial Discrimination by Police Contributes to Worse Physical and Emotional Quality of Life in Black Americans After Traumatic Injury. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities 2023 May 30:1-9
Date
05/30/2023Pubmed ID
37249827Pubmed Central ID
PMC10228454DOI
10.1007/s40615-023-01649-8Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85160614189 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 1 CitationAbstract
BACKGROUND: Black Americans are more likely than their White counterparts to experience traumatic injury and worse functional outcomes. Unfair police treatment has been identified as one specific form of racial discrimination potentially driving these deleterious outcomes. The aim of the investigation was to better understand the relationship between experiences of discrimination by police and trauma-specific quality of life outcomes, including PTSD symptom severity, in Black Americans following traumatic injury.
METHOD: Traumatically injured Black American adults (N = 53) presenting to a level 1 trauma center completed a measure of police and law enforcement discrimination at baseline, and quality of life and PTSD were assessed 6 months later.
RESULTS: Stepwise regressions results showed more frequent discrimination by police and law enforcement significantly predicted lower emotional and physical well-being 6 months after injury. Further, more frequent police discrimination resulted in more severe PTSD symptoms by 6 months after injury.
CONCLUSIONS: Findings underscore that following an injury not specifically related to discrimination by police, patients' historical, negative police experiences contributed to worse physical and emotional recovery in the present. These findings, in unison with prior investigations, reveal the need to consider patients' history of negative police experiences as a social determinant of health in their recovery.
Author List
Geier TJ, Timmer-Murillo SC, Brandolino AM, Piña I, Harb F, deRoon-Cassini TAAuthors
Amber Brandolino in the CTSI department at Medical College of Wisconsin - CTSITimothy J. Geier PhD Assistant Professor in the Surgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Sydney Timmer-Murillo PhD Assistant Professor in the Surgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Terri A. deRoon Cassini PhD Center Director, Professor in the Surgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin
