The biological factors that lead to these poor health outcomes are not fully known, but the chronic activation of the body's stress response is a likely contributing factor.
According to the study published this Thursday in Brain, Behavior & Immunity Health, three measures of DNA methylation were analyzed, a marker that can be used to assess the biological impacts of stress and the aging process.
Blood samples and surveys were taken from around 2,000 American adults as part of the Midlife in the United States study, a longitudinal analysis of health and well-being.
Participants were asked about their experiences of three forms of discrimination: everyday, severe and in the workplace.
The research found that the problem was associated with biological ageing, with people who reported such cases ageing faster from a biological point of view compared to those who did not suffer.
Further analysis showed that two health factors, smoking and body mass index, explained around half of the association between discrimination and ageing, suggesting that other responses to the stress caused by discrimination, such as increased cortisol and lack of sleep, are contributing to accelerated ageing.
"Although health behaviors partly explain these disparities, it is likely that a series of processes are at play that link psychosocial stressors to biological aging," explains Adolfo Cuevas, a professor at the NYU School of Global Public Health and first author of the study, in a university press release.
White participants, who reported less discrimination, were more susceptible to the impacts of the problem, perhaps due to less frequent exposure and fewer coping strategies.
"These results underline the importance of tackling all forms of discrimination to support healthy ageing and promote health equity," concludes Cuevas.
