摘要：Objectives. We examined the association of family member incarceration with cardiovascular risk factors and disease by gender. Methods. We used a sample of 5470 adults aged 18 years and older in the National Survey of American Life, a 2001–2003 nationally representative cross-sectional survey of Blacks and Whites living in the United States, to examine 5 self-reported health conditions (diabetes, hypertension, heart attack or stroke, obesity, and fair or poor health). Results. Family member incarceration was associated with increased likelihood of poor health across all 5 conditions for women but not for men. In adjusted models, women with family members who were currently incarcerated had 1.44 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.03, 2.00), 2.53 (95% CI = 1.80, 3.55), and 1.93 (95% CI = 1.45, 2.58) times the odds of being obese, having had a heart attack or stroke, and being in fair or poor health, respectively. Conclusions. Family member incarceration has profound implications for women’s cardiovascular health and should be considered a unique risk factor that contributes to racial disparities in health. Over the course of the prison boom, imprisonment has become a common event in the life course for Black men, 1 especially those with low levels of education 2 who reside in poor neighborhoods, 3 and their families. 4 Although there is no official figure for women who have a family member imprisoned, it has been estimated that as many as 3 million women annually have an incarcerated partner. 5 This is likely a conservative estimate because it includes neither inmates who have multiple concurrent relationships nor other women affected by male incarceration, such as mothers, sisters, and adult children. Because 60% to 70% of Black men who did not complete high school will experience imprisonment by their early 30s, 2,4 poor, minority women disproportionately experience family member imprisonment. Yet the only research that has considered the impact of male incarceration on the health of these women has focused on mental rather than physical health. 6,7 This is a surprising omission because much research examines the physical and mental health consequences of imprisonment for men 8–15 as well as their communities 16,17 and children. 18,19 This oversight is problematic for 2 reasons. First, because the experience of incarceration is concentrated among men, incarceration’s indirect consequences on women’s health—transmitted through the incarceration of a family member—are likely more relevant for health among women than are their own experiences of incarceration at the aggregate level. Because the lifetime risks of imprisonment for Black men 2 and paternal imprisonment for Black children 20 hover around 20% to 25%, whereas risks of maternal imprisonment for Black children barely exceed 3%, mass incarceration’s indirect effects on health inequalities among women are likely larger than its direct effects. In other words, because women are at least 5 times more likely to have a family member incarcerated than to be incarcerated themselves, the effects of their own incarceration would have to dwarf the effects of having a family member incarcerated to have the same aggregate effect. Likewise, as the cumulative risks of paternal and maternal imprisonment for White children—at 3.3% and 0.6%, respectively—are far lower than are risks for Black children, the consequences are likely much more pronounced for the Black community. 20 Second, there is a host of reasons to expect the incarceration of a family member to harm women’s physical health beyond increasing their risk of contracting sexually transmitted disease. 16,17 Indeed, exposure to family member imprisonment may compromise the physical health, particularly cardiovascular disease–related health outcomes, of women via (1) lowered socioeconomic status and family functioning, (2) reduced social support, and (3) higher levels of chronic stress. 21 The incarceration of a family member brings with it not only increases in household expenses 22–24 but also substantial decreases in household income 25 and increases in material hardship. 26 Furthermore, the incarceration of a family member often dramatically increases the stress and social isolation women feel as they struggle to deal with their family member’s absence. 22,23,27 The preponderance of research suggests that because of the independent and negative effects of low socioeconomic status, chronic stress, and social isolation on health, the incarceration of a family member may contribute to a novel form of weathering—the early health deterioration of Blacks as a consequence of the accumulation of repeated experience with social and economic adversity 28,29 —among disadvantaged Black women (Lee and Wildeman 21 provide a detailed discussion). We hypothesized that family member incarceration would be positively associated with cardiovascular disease and related risk factors among women but not men. Women shoulder the burden of childcare and household management and maintain connections to their imprisoned male family members or romantic partners. 21 In addition, women are more likely to engage in overeating and sedentary behaviors as coping behaviors for stress than are men. 30,31 Family member incarceration may lead to racial disparities in physical health among women because of the disproportionate experiences of this stressful life event among Black women. Using data from the National Survey of American Life (NSAL), we tested whether having a family member incarcerated is a distinct stressor that has consequences for cardiovascular risk factors and disease among women and men.
