Researchers launch $3.7M study on how structural racism accelerates aging in Black Americans

By Stacy M. Brown
Contributing Writer

(NNPA Newswire) — A group of researchers from Rutgers University and Michigan State University have launched a major study to examine the long-term effects of structural racism on cognitive aging, physical decline, and frailty – particularly in Black Americans. A five-year grant from the National Institute on Aging, a division of the National Institutes of Health, will support the study under the direction of Danielle L. Beatty Moody, an associate professor at Rutgers University, and Richard C. Sadler, an associate professor at Michigan State.

The research team plans to explore how lifetime exposure to structural racism in neighborhoods affects the aging process. The study will involve 800 Black and white participants from Baltimore who have been tracked for over two decades as part of a larger project on healthy aging in diverse neighborhoods. The long-term data will allow researchers to examine the cumulative impact of historical, enduring, and contemporary markers of structural racism.

In a news release, Moody and Sadler asserted that the study moves beyond traditional research focused only on residential segregation or redlining. “It’s not just redlining, and it’s not just segregation,” they said. “The patterns of racist, discriminatory practices go far deeper. We need to comprehensively document the full array of tools used to entrench structural racism in our urban landscapes to understand why racial inequities persist across numerous health outcomes.”

In addition to exploring how non-Black residents in the same communities are affected, the researchers said they would investigate personal experiences with discrimination and biological and social factors that influence risk and resilience. The authors expect the study will inform strategies to address racial inequities in accelerated aging, particularly in communities where Black Americans live and age in place.

Once completed, researchers said they would share the results with participants and local stakeholders to support ongoing advocacy and policy efforts to achieve health equity. Moody and Sadler hope the study’s findings will help drive transformative change, particularly in housing and neighborhood environments.

“We are not only looking at the past or present,” Sadler remarked. “We’re also aiming to influence the future of health equity in communities where Black Americans continue to take the hardest hits.”

This article originally published in the October 28, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.