Is sleep behavior shaped by perceived racism among Black Women?

Significance: Improving sleep habits posited to correlate with possible weight reduction. Given the extent of the obesity epidemic among black women, understanding sleep patterns may help identify sleep patterns as a modifiable risk factor for obesity.

Purpose: To examine the relationship between reactions to racism and sleep behavior among black women.

Methods/Measurement: Extant data from the CDC BRFSS and the subset module for the reaction to racism module was completed by 774 black women from Indiana. Sleep was measured by the number of days that the participants had poor quality sleep. Perceived racism was measured by the emotion response variable: Have you been emotionally upset or sad as a result of how you were treated based on race? In addition, level of education and body mass index was assessed.

Analysis: Descriptive statistics were employed to describe the sample. Binary Logistic regression with exercise as an outcome and reactions to racism as the covariate of interest was employed to assess the relationship between exercise behavior and perceived racism. We also controlled for SES and BMI.

Results: With an average age of 49.9yrs old over 62% of Black women were overweight/obese and over half had at least a high school education. Perceived racism emotionally affected approximately 21% of the population. Being emotionally affected by perceived racism is related to a 3.3 day increase in days with poor sleep quality (p=0.0117).

Conclusion: Further exploration of perceived racism's impact on sleep and subsequently on weight reduction is necessary.