IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v204y2018icp1-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Discrimination hurts: The effect of discrimination on the development of chronic pain

Author

Listed:
  • Brown, Timothy T.
  • Partanen, Juulia
  • Chuong, Linh
  • Villaverde, Vaughn
  • Chantal Griffin, Ann
  • Mendelson, Aaron

Abstract

We examine the hypothesis that psychological distress due to perceived discrimination can result in chronic pain, where perceived discrimination is based on age, gender, race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, height/weight, religion, and other characteristics. Using a sample of 1908 individuals from the two most recent waves (2004–2006 and 2013–2014) of panel data from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States, we apply instrumental variables regression where measures of daily and lifetime perceived discrimination are instruments whose effects on chronic pain are mediated by psychological distress. We find statistically significant dose-response relationships between daily perceived discrimination and psychological distress, between lifetime perceived discrimination and psychological distress, and between psychological distress and chronic pain. Based on our instrumental variables regression model, we estimate that 4.1 million people in the US in 2016, aged 40 and older, experience chronic pain that is caused by increased psychological distress, where psychological stress has increased due to perceived discrimination.

Suggested Citation

  • Brown, Timothy T. & Partanen, Juulia & Chuong, Linh & Villaverde, Vaughn & Chantal Griffin, Ann & Mendelson, Aaron, 2018. "Discrimination hurts: The effect of discrimination on the development of chronic pain," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 1-8.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:204:y:2018:i:c:p:1-8
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.03.015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953618301163
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.03.015?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Williams, D.R. & Neighbors, H.W. & Jackson, J.S., 2003. "Racial/ethnic discrimination and health: Findings from community studies," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(2), pages 200-208.
    2. Geronimus, A.T., 2013. "Deep integration: Letting the epigenome out of the bottle without losing sight of the structural origins of population health," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 103(SUPPL.1), pages 56-63.
    3. Lee, Nagyeong & Sung, Hyoju & Kim, Ji-Hwan & Punnett, Laura & Kim, Seung-Sup, 2017. "Perceived discrimination and low back pain among 28,532 workers in South Korea: Effect modification by labor union status," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 198-204.
    4. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, April.
    5. Gee, G.C. & Spencer, M.S. & Chen, J. & Takeuchi, D., 2007. "A nationwide study of discrimination and chronic health conditions among Asian Americans," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 97(7), pages 1275-1282.
    6. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769.
    7. Hudson, Darrell L. & Puterman, Eli & Bibbins-Domingo, Kirsten & Matthews, Karen A. & Adler, Nancy E., 2013. "Race, life course socioeconomic position, racial discrimination, depressive symptoms and self-rated health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 7-14.
    8. Foster, Sarah & Hooper, Paula & Knuiman, Matthew & Giles-Corti, Billie, 2016. "Does heightened fear of crime lead to poorer mental health in new suburbs, or vice versa?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 30-34.
    9. José Luis Montiel Olea & Carolin Pflueger, 2013. "A Robust Test for Weak Instruments," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(3), pages 358-369, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Macchia, Lucía & Oswald, Andrew J., 2021. "Physical pain, gender, and the state of the economy in 146 nations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).
    2. Brooke Y. Redmond & Aniqua Salwa & Tanya Smit & Joseph W. Ditre & Lorra Garey & Michael J. Zvolensky, 2023. "Pain Severity and Smoking Abstinence Expectancies among Latinx Individuals Who Smoke Cigarettes: The Moderating Role of Perceived Discrimination," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-14, January.
    3. Levy, Becca R. & Pietrzak, Robert H. & Slade, Martin D., 2023. "Societal impact on older persons’ chronic pain: Roles of age stereotypes, age attribution, and age discrimination," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 323(C).
    4. Woods, Sarah B. & Priest, Jacob B. & Kuhn, Veronica & Signs, Tara, 2019. "Close relationships as a contributor to chronic pain pathogenesis: Predicting pain etiology and persistence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 237(C), pages 1-1.
    5. Wilkinson, Lindsay R. & Schafer, Markus H. & Wilkinson, Renae, 2020. "How painful is a recession? An assessment of two future-oriented buffering mechanisms," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    6. Macchia, Lucía, 2022. "Pain trends and pain growth disparities, 2009–2021," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    7. Hisler, Garrett C. & Brenner, Rachel E., 2019. "Does sleep partially mediate the effect of everyday discrimination on future mental and physical health?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 115-123.
    8. Ng, Wee Qin & Hartanto, Andree, 2022. "The effect of executive function on the development of chronic pain: A prospective longitudinal study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Angel, Marco Del & Richardson, Gary, 2024. "Independent regulators and financial stability evidence from gubernatorial election campaigns in the Progressive Era," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    2. Batkeyev, Birzhan & DeRemer, David R., 2023. "Mountains of evidence: The effects of abnormal air pollution on crime," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 288-319.
    3. Kalwij, Adriaan, 2023. "Risk preferences, preventive behaviour, and the probability of a loss: Empirical evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).
    4. Ilona Babenko & Benjamin Bennett & John M Bizjak & Jeffrey L Coles & Jason J Sandvik, 2023. "Clawback Provisions and Firm Risk," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 12(2), pages 191-239.
    5. Peppel-Srebrny, Jemima, 2021. "Not all government budget deficits are created equal: Evidence from advanced economies' sovereign bond markets," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    6. Shvartsman, Elena & Beckmann, Michael, 2015. "Stressed by your job: What is the role of personnel policy?," Working papers 2015/15, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    7. Meyer, Sophie-Charlotte, 2016. "Maternal employment and childhood overweight in Germany," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 84-102.
    8. Chang, Hung-Hao & Lee, Brian & Hsieh, Yi-Ting, 2021. "Participation in afforestation programs and the distribution of forest farm income," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    9. Timothy Tyler Brown & Vishnu Murthy, 2020. "Do public health activities pay for themselves? The effect of county‐level public health expenditures on county‐level public assistance medical care benefits in California," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(10), pages 1220-1230, October.
    10. Czarnitzki, Dirk & Doherr, Thorsten & Hussinger, Katrin & Schliessler, Paula & Toole, Andrew A., 2016. "Knowledge Creates Markets: The influence of entrepreneurial support and patent rights on academic entrepreneurship," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 131-146.
    11. Bakx, Pieter & Wouterse, Bram & van Doorslaer, Eddy & Wong, Albert, 2020. "Better off at home? Effects of nursing home eligibility on costs, hospitalizations and survival," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    12. Dennis Shen & Peng Ding & Jasjeet Sekhon & Bin Yu, 2022. "Same Root Different Leaves: Time Series and Cross-Sectional Methods in Panel Data," Papers 2207.14481, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2022.
    13. Berbée, Paul & Brücker, Herbert & Garloff, Alfred & Sommerfeld, Katrin, 2022. "The labor demand effects of refugee immigration: Evidence from a natural experiment," ZEW Discussion Papers 22-069, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    14. Ellis, Jimmy R. & Gershenson, Seth, 2016. "LATE for the Meeting: Gender, Peer Advising, and College Success," IZA Discussion Papers 9956, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Fatica, Serena, 2009. "Taxation and the quality of institutions: asymmetric effects on FDI," MPRA Paper 24179, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Jun 2010.
    16. Kaiyatsa, Stevier & Jumbe, Charles & Ricker-Gilbert, Jacob, 2017. "Supply-side Crowding-out and Crowding-in Effects of Malawi’s Farm Input Subsidy Program on Private-sector Input Marketing: A Quasi-experimental Field Study," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258135, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    17. Cristian Mardones & Pablo Herreros, 2023. "Ex post evaluation of voluntary environmental policies on the energy intensity in Chilean firms," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(9), pages 9111-9136, September.
    18. Sedova, Barbora & Kalkuhl, Matthias, 2020. "Who are the climate migrants and where do they go? Evidence from rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    19. Boris HirschBy & Daniel S. J. Lechmann & Claus Schnabel, 2017. "Coming to work while sick: an economic theory of presenteeism with an application to German data," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 69(4), pages 1010-1031.
    20. Tymon Słoczyński, 2022. "Interpreting OLS Estimands When Treatment Effects Are Heterogeneous: Smaller Groups Get Larger Weights," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 104(3), pages 501-509, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:204:y:2018:i:c:p:1-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.