Discrimination and Health Among First-Generation Hispanic/Latinx Immigrants: the Roles of Sleep and Fatigue

• Published in: Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities Vol. 9; no. 6; pp. 2105 - 2116
• Main Authors: Green, Tiffany, Shipman, Jelaina, Valrie, Cecelia, Corona, Rosalie, Kohlmann, Tatiana, Valiani, Shawn, Hagiwara, Nao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.12.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Acculturation; Bootstrap method; College students; Deterioration; Discrimination; Emigrants and Immigrants; Epidemiology; Fatigue; Health status; Hispanic or Latino; Hormones; Humans; Immigrants; Mediation; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mental health; Minority & ethnic groups; Physiology; Population; Quality of Life Research; Race; Racial discrimination; Sleep; Social Inequality; Social Structure; Statistical analysis; United States > US; Mental and physical health; Immigration; Fatigue; Discrimination; Sleep
• ISSN: 2197-3792; 2196-8837; 2196-8837
• DOI: 10.1007/s40615-021-01149-7

Introduction A growing literature documents the associations between discrimination and health. Emerging evidence suggests that among Hispanic/Latinx immigrants, discrimination leads to the deterioration of health outcomes over time. While sleep has been proposed as an important mediator of the relationship between discrimination and health, few studies have explicitly investigated this pathway, particularly among Hispanic/Latinx populations. Objective To investigate the relationships between racial/ethnic discrimination, sleep, and physical and mental health among Hispanic/Latinx immigrants in the USA. Data and Methods Using data from a parent study of first-generation Hispanic/Latinx immigrants in the southeastern USA, we conducted sequential mediation analyses using the bootstrapping method to investigate whether self-reported sleep duration, sleep quality, and fatigue mediate the relationship(s) between self-reported discrimination, as measured by the discrimination subscale of the Riverside Acculturative Stress Inventory, and self-reported physical and mental health. Results Nocturnal awakenings, fatigue, and sleep quality were statistically significant sequential mediators of the relationship between discrimination and physical health ( b = −.001, SE = .001, CI [−.0027, −.0001]); fatigue alone also mediated this relationship ( b = −.01, SE = .01, CI [−.0279, −.0003]). Nocturnal awakenings, fatigue, and sleep quality were also significant sequential mediators of the relationship between discrimination and mental health ( b = −.001, SE = .001, CI [−.0031, −.0001]). Conclusion Sleep and fatigue play an important role in linking discrimination and health among first-generation Hispanic/Latinx immigrants. The development and implementation of interventions that focus on reducing fatigue among this population could mitigate the effects of unfair treatment on health outcomes.