Racial and Educational Disparities in Cumulative Exposure to Hardships of the 2008 Great Recession and Inflammation

This cross-sectional analysis examined self-reported economic hardships of the 2008 Great Recession, race/ethnicity, educational attainment, and psychological well-being (PWB) as predictors of systemic inflammatory physiology at midlife. We also tested for differential vulnerability in the relationship between recession hardship and inflammatory physiology by race/ethnicity, education, and PWB.

Adults from the Midlife in the United States Refresher sample completed a survey and biomedical assessments after the recession ( n = 592 non-Hispanic White respondents, n = 158 Black/African American respondents, n = 108 respondents with other race/ethnicity). Cumulative recession hardship was the sum of financial, housing, and employment-related events. Outcomes included circulating levels of interleukin 6 and C-reactive protein. General linear regression models tested main effects interactions between primary predictor variables.

Educational attainment was inversely associated with recession hardships ( b = -0.18, 95% confidence interval = -0.26 to -0.11, p < .001). Black/African American respondents reported more recession hardships than White respondents ( b = 1.17, 95% confidence interval = 0.67 to 1.68, p < .001). More recession hardships predicted higher levels of interleukin 6 ( b = 0.06, p < .001) and C-reactive protein ( b = 0.04, p = .004). Analyses did not support race/ethnicity, education, and PWB as moderators of the association between recession hardship and inflammatory markers.

Race/ethnicity and education independently predicted disparities in cumulative recession hardship exposure. Recession hardship predicted higher blood levels of inflammatory proteins associated with long-term health. The lack of findings for differential vulnerability in the relationship between recession hardship and inflammatory markers by race/ethnicity, education, or PWB was possibly due to the limited sample size.