IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i17p9235-d627216.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Racial and Gender Discrimination Predict Mental Health Outcomes among Healthcare Workers Beyond Pandemic-Related Stressors: Findings from a Cross-Sectional Survey

Author

Listed:
  • Rachel Hennein

    (Yale School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
    Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA)

  • Jessica Bonumwezi

    (Department of Psychology, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ 07043, USA)

  • Max Jordan Nguemeni Tiako

    (Department of Internal Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA)

  • Petty Tineo

    (Department of Psychology, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ 07043, USA)

  • Sarah R. Lowe

    (Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Yale School of Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA)

Abstract

Racial and gender discrimination are risk factors for adverse mental health outcomes in the general population; however, the effects of discrimination on the mental health of healthcare workers needs to be further explored, especially in relation to competing stressors. Thus, we administered a survey to healthcare workers to investigate the associations between perceived racial and gender discrimination and symptoms of depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress, and burnout during a period of substantial stressors related to the COVID-19 pandemic and a national racial reckoning. We used multivariable linear regression models, which controlled for demographics and pandemic-related stressors. Of the 997 participants (Mean Age = 38.22 years, SD = 11.77), 688 (69.01%) were White, 148 (14.84%) Asian, 86 (8.63%) Black, 73 (7.32%) Latinx, and 21 (2.11%) identified as another race. In multivariable models, racial discrimination predicted symptoms of depression (B = 0.04; SE: 0.02; p = .009), anxiety (B = 0.05; SE: 0.02; p = .004), and posttraumatic stress (B = 0.01; SE: 0.01; p = .006) and gender discrimination predicted posttraumatic stress (B = 0.11; SE: 0.05; p = .013) and burnout (B = 0.24; SE: 0.07; p = .001). Discrimination had indirect effects on mental health outcomes via inadequate social support. Hospital-wide diversity and inclusion initiatives are warranted to mitigate the adverse mental health effects of discrimination.

Suggested Citation

  • Rachel Hennein & Jessica Bonumwezi & Max Jordan Nguemeni Tiako & Petty Tineo & Sarah R. Lowe, 2021. "Racial and Gender Discrimination Predict Mental Health Outcomes among Healthcare Workers Beyond Pandemic-Related Stressors: Findings from a Cross-Sectional Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-14, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:17:p:9235-:d:627216
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/17/9235/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/17/9235/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yufei Li & Nathaniel Scherer & Lambert Felix & Hannah Kuper, 2021. "Prevalence of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder in health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-19, March.
    2. Rodolfo Buselli & Martina Corsi & Sigrid Baldanzi & Martina Chiumiento & Elena Del Lupo & Valerio Dell'Oste & Carlo Antonio Bertelloni & Gabriele Massimetti & Liliana Dell’Osso & Alfonso Cristaudo & C, 2020. "Professional Quality of Life and Mental Health Outcomes among Health Care Workers Exposed to Sars-Cov-2 (Covid-19)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-12, August.
    3. Jin, Yinzi & Zhu, Dawei & He, Ping, 2020. "Social causation or social selection? The longitudinal interrelationship between poverty and depressive symptoms in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).
    4. Yin Paradies & Jehonathan Ben & Nida Denson & Amanuel Elias & Naomi Priest & Alex Pieterse & Arpana Gupta & Margaret Kelaher & Gilbert Gee, 2015. "Racism as a Determinant of Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(9), pages 1-48, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Maria Rosaria Gualano & Tiziana Sinigaglia & Giuseppina Lo Moro & Stefano Rousset & Agnese Cremona & Fabrizio Bert & Roberta Siliquini, 2021. "The Burden of Burnout among Healthcare Professionals of Intensive Care Units and Emergency Departments during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-17, August.
    2. Jo Daniels & Jenny Ingram & Anna Pease & Elaine Wainwright & Kate Beckett & Lalitha Iyadurai & Sophie Harris & Olivia Donnelly & Tom Roberts & Edward Carlton, 2021. "The COVID-19 Clinician Cohort (CoCCo) Study: Empirically Grounded Recommendations for Forward-Facing Psychological Care of Frontline Doctors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-18, September.
    3. Irizar, Patricia & Kapadia, Dharmi & Amele, Sarah & Bécares, Laia & Divall, Pip & Katikireddi, Srinivasa Vittal & Kibuchi, Eliud & Kneale, Dylan & McCabe, Ronan & Nazroo, James & Nellums, Laura B. & T, 2023. "Pathways to ethnic inequalities in COVID-19 health outcomes in the United Kingdom: A systematic map," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 329(C).
    4. Yuqi Wang & Laurent Reyes & Emily A. Greenfield & Sarah R. Allred, 2022. "Municipal Ethnic Composition and Disparities in COVID-19 Infections in New Jersey: A Blinder–Oaxaca Decomposition Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-25, October.
    5. Artem Kashtanov & Ekaterina Molotok & Andrey Yavorovskiy & Alexander Boyarkov & Yuriy Vasil’ev & Ali Alsaegh & Sergey Dydykin & Olesya Kytko & Renata Meylanova & Yulianna Enina & Vasiliy Troitskiy & M, 2022. "A Comparative Cross-Sectional Study Assessing the Psycho-Emotional State of Intensive Care Units’ Physicians and Nurses of COVID-19 Hospitals of a Russian Metropolis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-22, February.
    6. Ewa Małgorzata Szepietowska & Ewa Zawadzka & Sara Filipiak, 2022. "Symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Sense of Gains and Losses during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An International Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-19, March.
    7. Malat, Jennifer & Mayorga-Gallo, Sarah & Williams, David R., 2018. "The effects of whiteness on the health of whites in the USA," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 148-156.
    8. Lynn N. Ibekwe & Maria Eugenia Fernández-Esquer & Sandi L. Pruitt & Nalini Ranjit & Maria E. Fernández, 2021. "Racism and Cancer Screening among Low-Income, African American Women: A Multilevel, Longitudinal Analysis of 2-1-1 Texas Callers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-19, October.
    9. Caryn N. Bell & Jordan Kerr & Jessica L. Young, 2019. "Associations between Obesity, Obesogenic Environments, and Structural Racism Vary by County-Level Racial Composition," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-17, March.
    10. Ricci B Harris & James Stanley & Donna M Cormack, 2018. "Racism and health in New Zealand: Prevalence over time and associations between recent experience of racism and health and wellbeing measures using national survey data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(5), pages 1-22, May.
    11. Naijie Guan & Alessandra Guariglia & Patrick Moore & Fangzhou Xu & Hareth Al-Janabi, 2022. "Financial stress and depression in adults: A systematic review," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(2), pages 1-20, February.
    12. Villarreal-Otálora, Tatiana & Boyas, Javier F. & Alvarez-Hernandez, Luis R. & Fatehi, Mariam, 2020. "Ecological factors influencing suicidal ideation-to-action among Latinx adolescents: An exploration of sex differences," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    13. Farah N. Mawani & Patricia O’Campo & Peter Smith, 2022. "Opportunity Costs: Underemployment and Mental Health Inequities Between Immigrant and Canadian-Born Labour Force Participants: A Cross-Sectional Study," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 1443-1470, September.
    14. Nazan Ulusoy & Anja Schablon, 2020. "Discrimination in In-Patient Geriatric Care: A Qualitative Study on the Experiences of Employees with a Turkish Migration Background," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-14, March.
    15. Tara L Upshaw & Chloe Brown & Robert Smith & Melissa Perri & Carolyn Ziegler & Andrew D Pinto, 2021. "Social determinants of COVID-19 incidence and outcomes: A rapid review," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-22, March.
    16. Lubna Rashid & Silvia Cepeda-García, 2021. "Self-Categorising and Othering in Migrant Integration: The Case of Entrepreneurs in Berlin," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-14, February.
    17. Satrio Nindyo Istiko & Jo Durham & Lana Elliott, 2022. "(Not That) Essential: A Scoping Review of Migrant Workers’ Access to Health Services and Social Protection during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-13, March.
    18. Dudovitz, R.N. & Biely, C. & Barnert, E.S. & Coker, T.R. & Guerrero, A.D. & Jackson, N. & Schickedanz, A. & Szilagyi, P.G. & Iyer, S. & Chung, P.J., 2021. "Association between school racial/ethnic composition during adolescence and adult health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    19. Rodolfo Buselli & Martina Corsi & Antonello Veltri & Riccardo Marino & Fabrizio Caldi & Paolo Del Guerra & Giovanni Guglielmi & Camilla Tanca & Massimo Paoli & Vincenzo Maria Calabretta & Salvio Perre, 2023. "Comparison between Standard Expository Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT-E) and Immersive Virtual Reality CBT (CBT-VR) for Rehabilitation of Patients Affected by Occupational Stress Disorders: Study P," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(9), pages 1-13, May.
    20. Uršula Lipovec Čebron, 2021. "Language as a Trigger for Racism: Language Barriers at Healthcare Institutions in Slovenia," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-17, March.

    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:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:17:p:9235-:d:627216. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.