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The following is a summary of “Association of Exposure to Interpersonal Racism and Racial Disparities in Inadequate Sleep Risk,” published in the October 2024 issue of Pediatrics by Davenport et al.
Children and adolescents from racially minoritized backgrounds may experience inadequate sleep due to exposure to interpersonal racism.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to examine the association between caregiver-reported inadequate sleep and exposure to interpersonal racism.
They performed a cross-sectional analysis of 21,924 school-aged children and 27,142 adolescents using the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) data from 2016 to 2021, applying multivariable logistic regression models to estimate associations (P<0.05).
The results showed that caregiver-reported child exposure to interpersonal racism was significantly associated with a higher probability of inadequate sleep among non-Hispanic Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) school-aged children, Hispanic adolescents, and non-Hispanic multiracial adolescents. However, after adjusting for covariates, only the association with inadequate sleep in Hispanic adolescents remained significant, though attenuated (P<0.05). Non-Hispanic Black school-aged children exposed to racism had a lower probability of insufficient sleep than non-Hispanic Black children without exposure (P<0.05).
They concluded that caregiver-reported inadequate sleep in Hispanic adolescents was linked to exposure to interpersonal racism, highlighting the need for targeted interventions to address racism-related stress.