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Fatigue varies by social class in african americans but not caucasian americans

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Abstract

Socioeconomic status explains many ethnic disparities in health; however, mechanisms are hard to identify. Fatigue—a frequent complaint in patients and normals—is associated with poorer quality of life. We wondered if ethnicity and social class interact to explain fatigue. A total of 40 African Americans (AAs) and 64 Caucasian Americans (CAs) completed short forms of the Profile of Mood States (POMS-SF) and Multidimensional Fatigue Symptom Inventory (MFSI-SF). Participants were divided into high-middle and low social class groups (as per Hollingshead, 1958a). After controlling for gender, body mass index, depressive symptoms, and response bias, ethnicity and social class interacted for POMS-SF fatigue. AAs in the high-middle classes reported more fatigue than AAs in the low classes and CAs in the high-middle classes. Fatigue did not differ by class for CAs nor by ethnicity in the lower classes. Similar findings emerged for MFSI-SF general fatigue. Social class is important for understanding fatigue in AAs but not CAs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. San Diego, Moores UCSD Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego Psychiatry and University of California, 9500 Gilman Drive, 92093-0804, La Jolla, California, USA

    Wayne A. Bardwell

  2. Alliant International University, San Diego, California, USA

    Stephen C. Burke

  3. University of California, San Diego / San Diego State University Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, La Jolla, California, USA

    KaMala S. Thomas

  4. Alliant International University, San Diego, California, USA

    Christian Carter & Kimberly Weingart

  5. San Diego, Moores UCSD Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, Psychiatry and University of California, La Jolla, California, USA

    Joel E. Dimsdale

Authors
  1. Wayne A. Bardwell
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  2. Stephen C. Burke
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  3. KaMala S. Thomas
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  4. Christian Carter
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  5. Kimberly Weingart
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  6. Joel E. Dimsdale
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Correspondence to Wayne A. Bardwell.

Additional information

This work was supported by National Institutes of Health grants HL36005 and RR00827.

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Bardwell, W.A., Burke, S.C., Thomas, K.S. et al. Fatigue varies by social class in african americans but not caucasian americans. Int. J. Behav. Med. 13, 252–258 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327558ijbm1303_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327558ijbm1303_9

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