Background John Henryism (JH) is a form of active high-effort coping. Low-socioeconomic status (SES) African Americans adopting JH to deal with structural racism and other chronic stressors might be more likely to display cardiovascular disease risk factors. Previous tests of this hypothesis have mostly focused on the moderating role of current SES and hypertension as the outcome variable. Furthermore, most of the previous work has been conducted among young and middle-aged adults. This study aimed at extending work on the JH hypothesis by testing the combined effect of JH and childhood SES on metabolic syndrome and systemic inflammation among African American older adults. Methods One hundred seventy urban African American older adults (Mage = 67.64 years, 75.9% female) were recruited. Participants completed questionnaires assessing JH, childhood SES, and other variables used as covariates (ie, demographic information, chronic conditions, medication use, and health behaviors). Blood pressure, waist circumference, and blood were also collected. Triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, hemoglobin A1C, and C-reactive protein levels were measured from the blood samples. Results JH was positively associated with metabolic syndrome symptoms among participants reporting low childhood SES levels, but not among those reporting high childhood SES levels. The same pattern did not emerge when we considered current SES. Similar patterns of results did not emerge as far as systemic inflammation was concerned. Conclusions Our findings highlight the importance of considering the joint impact of objective conditions early in life and individual psychological proclivities in explaining increased risk for cardiovascular disease risk in this population.

中文翻译：

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童年社会经济地位和心脏代谢健康：对非裔美国老年人约翰·亨利主义假说的检验

背景 约翰亨利主义 (JH) 是一种积极的高强度应对方式。低社会经济地位 (SES) 采用 JH 来应对结构性种族主义和其他慢性压力源的非洲裔美国人可能更有可能表现出心血管疾病的风险因素。以前对该假设的检验主要集中在当前 SES 和高血压作为结果变量的调节作用上。此外，以前的大部分工作都是在青壮年和中年人中进行的。本研究旨在通过测试 JH 和儿童 SES 对非洲裔美国老年人代谢综合征和全身炎症的综合影响来扩展 JH 假说的工作。方法 招募了 170 名城市非洲裔美国老年人（年龄 = 67.64 岁，75.9% 为女性）。参与者完成了评估 JH 的问卷，儿童 SES，以及用作协变量的其他变量（即人口统计信息、慢性病、药物使用和健康行为）。还收集了血压、腰围和血液。从血液样本中测量了甘油三酯、高密度脂蛋白胆固醇、血红蛋白 A1C 和 C 反应蛋白水平。结果 在报告儿童 SES 水平低的参与者中，JH 与代谢综合征症状呈正相关，但在那些报告儿童 SES 水平高的参与者中则没有。当我们考虑当前的 SES 时，并没有出现相同的模式。就全身炎症而言，没有出现类似的结果模式。