Individual psychosocial resilience in Black adults may be associated with better cardiovascular health, according to a study published Oct. 8 in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

The research by Jeong Hwan Kim, MD, et al., was part of the Morehouse-Emory Cardiovascular Center for Health Equity study, and assessed Life's Simple 7 (LS7) scores in 389 Black adults in Atlanta, GA, to see whether individual psychosocial resilience and neighborhood-level cardiovascular resilience were associated with better cardiovascular health. The individual psychosocial resilience assessed environmental mastery, purpose in life, optimism, resilient coping and depressive symptoms. Neighborhood-level cardiovascular resilience was separately determined by the census tract-level rates of cardiovascular mortality/ morbidity events.

Results showed that higher individual psychosocial resilience was significantly associated with higher LS7 scores (β=0.38 [0.16 – 0.59] per 1 SD) after adjustment for sociodemographic factors. Similarly, higher neighborhood-level cardiovascular resilience was significantly associated with higher LS7 scores (β=0.23 [0.02 – 0.45] per 1 SD).

When jointly examined, the authors found that high individual psychosocial resilience was independently associated with higher LS7 scores (β=0.73 [0.31 – 1.17]), whereas living in high-resilience neighborhoods was not.

The authors note that the largest difference in LS7 scores was between those with high and low psychosocial resilience living in low-resilience neighborhoods (8.38 [7.90 – 8.86] vs. 7.42 [7.04 – 7.79]).

"Further research into the mechanistic links underlying our observed associations is needed to derive more specific insights into developing novel and effective intervention strategies to improve cardiovascular health of Black adults and other vulnerable populations," the authors conclude.

"Promoting resilience in Black people insinuates that injustice must be overcome without fully acknowledging any associated trauma," write Amber E. Johnson, MD, MS, MBA, FACC, and Jared W. Magnani, MD, MS, in a related editorial comment. "Instead, the goal should be to work with communities that have been historically marginalized or made vulnerable to restore agency for positive outcomes. We advocate for promoting health equity and social justice first, thereby rendering interventions to bolster resilience unnecessary."

Clinical Topics: Cardiovascular Care Team

Keywords: Social Justice, Censuses, Residence Characteristics, Morbidity, African Americans, Cardiovascular Diseases

< Back to Listings