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Chronic Stress Is an Underestimated Pandemic Risk Factor
Americans who bear the most chronic stress — predominantly people of color — are at an especially high risk for the severe outcomes of Covid-19
The pandemic is a stressful and traumatic experience for millions of people around the world. There’s constant feelings of lack of control, isolation, and fear of contracting Covid-19 and dying from it. Science has shown for decades that high levels of stress like this can put people’s immune systems at risk. And new data is showing that Americans who bear the most chronic stress seem to be at an especially high risk for the severe outcomes of Covid-19.
An alarmingly disproportionate number of people of color are dying from Covid-19, with Black people dying at 2.5 times the rate of white people, according to the Covid Tracking Project from Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research and The Atlantic. The stress of the economic downturn also lingers with data showing Black and Hispanic people are more likely to be laid off in the pandemic, as well as a looming eviction and housing crisis. On top of all that, there’s the global grappling on race in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. These kinds of stressors can influence bodies and behavior, and are an underestimated risk factor in the pandemic, experts say.
A seminal 1992 study led by Arline Geronimus, PhD, a professor of health behavior and health education and researcher with the University of Michigan’s Population Studies Center, established the term “weathering” to describe how sustained stress wears down the bodies of people of color over time and causes chronic health issues. Specifically, the study found that “the health of African American women may begin to deteriorate in early adulthood as a physical consequence of cumulative socioeconomic disadvantage.” While the study focused on Black pregnant teens, the concept has been used to explain how racism can impact physical health, including raising the risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease.
“People of color may know their high vulnerability to the virus, and that’s a stressor.”
