SWAN: Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation
This multi-site, longterm epidemiological study focuses on the health of U.S. women during middle age. Started in 1994 and co-sponsored by several National Institutes of Health agencies, the study has yielded more than 400 publications to date (list downloadable as a Word file).
Racial and Ethnic Patterns of Allostatic Load Among Adult Women in the United States: Findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999–2004
Laura Chyu and Dawn M. Upchurch, J Womens Health (2011).
Allostatic load is an indicator of biological aging, and it reveals a pronounced racial disparity. In this nationally representative study, black women 40–49 years old had allostatic load scores 1.14 times higher than white women 50–59 years old. Meanwhile, Mexican women not born in the United States had lower allostatic load scores than those born in the United States. “The persistent black/white disparity in AL across all age groups observed in this study suggests that black women are already at a significant health disadvantage in early adulthood, and this pattern persists over the life course, with particularly pronounced black/white disparities by midlife,” the authors said.