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- Title
Officer-Involved Killings of Unarmed Black People and Racial Disparities in Sleep Health.
- Authors
Venkataramani, Atheendar S.; Bair, Elizabeth F.; Bor, Jacob; Jackson, Chandra L.; Kawachi, Ichiro; Lee, Jooyoung; Papachristos, Andrew; Tsai, Alexander C.
- Abstract
Key Points: Question: Are officer-involved killings of unarmed Black people associated with adverse sleep health outcomes in the Black community? Findings: In this nationally representative repeated cross-sectional study using a difference-in-differences design, non-Hispanic Black individuals were more likely than non-Hispanic White people to report short sleep (<7 hours) or very short sleep (<6 hours) after police killed an unarmed Black person in their area of residence (state, commuting zone, or county) or after a highly public, nationally prominent officer-involved killing of an unarmed Black person. Meaning: Exposure to officer-involved killings of unarmed Black individuals may be associated with racial disparities in sleep health. Importance: Racial disparities in sleep health may mediate the broader health outcomes of structural racism. Objective: To assess changes in sleep duration in the Black population after officer-involved killings of unarmed Black people, a cardinal manifestation of structural racism. Design, Setting, and Participants: Two distinct difference-in-differences analyses examined the changes in sleep duration for the US non-Hispanic Black (hereafter, Black) population before vs after exposure to officer-involved killings of unarmed Black people, using data from adult respondents in the US Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS; 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2018) and the American Time Use Survey (ATUS; 2013-2019) with data on officer-involved killings from the Mapping Police Violence database. Data analyses were conducted between September 24, 2021, and September 12, 2023. Exposures: Occurrence of any police killing of an unarmed Black person in the state, county, or commuting zone of the survey respondent's residence in each of the four 90-day periods prior to interview, or occurence of a highly public, nationally prominent police killing of an unarmed Black person anywhere in the US during the 90 days prior to interview. Main Outcomes and Measures: Self-reported total sleep duration (hours), short sleep (<7 hours), and very short sleep (<6 hours). Results: Data from 181 865 Black and 1 799 757 White respondents in the BRFSS and 9858 Black and 46 532 White respondents in the ATUS were analyzed. In the larger BRFSS, the majority of Black respondents were between the ages of 35 and 64 (99 014 [weighted 51.4%]), women (115 731 [weighted 54.1%]), and college educated (100 434 [weighted 52.3%]). Black respondents in the BRFSS reported short sleep duration at a rate of 45.9%, while White respondents reported it at a rate of 32.6%; for very short sleep, the corresponding values were 18.4% vs 10.4%, respectively. Statistically significant increases in the probability of short sleep and very short sleep were found among Black respondents when officers killed an unarmed Black person in their state of residence during the first two 90-day periods prior to interview. Magnitudes were larger in models using exposure to a nationally prominent police killing occurring anywhere in the US. Estimates were equivalent to 7% to 16% of the sample disparity between Black and White individuals in short sleep and 13% to 30% of the disparity in very short sleep. Conclusions and Relevance: Sleep health among Black adults worsened after exposure to officer-involved killings of unarmed Black individuals. These empirical findings underscore the role of structural racism in shaping racial disparities in sleep health outcomes. This repeated cross-sectional study using difference-in-differences analyses assesses sleep duration changes in Black individuals after officer-involved killings of unarmed Black people.
- Publication
JAMA Internal Medicine, 2024, Vol 184, Issue 4, p363
- ISSN
2168-6106
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1001/jamainternmed.2023.8003