The Physiological Toll of Arrests: An Examination of Arrest History on Midlife Allostatic Load

Overview

Journal Ann Epidemiol

Publisher Elsevier

Specialty Public Health

Date 2024 May 25

PMID 38796042

Authors

Katherine LeMasters

Alena Sorensen DAlessio

Fatima Touma

Nafeesa Andrabi

Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein

Carmen Gutierrez

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Purpose: To understand how allostatic load - cumulative physiologic burden of stress - varies by amount and timing of arrests stratified by race/ethnicity and by sex.

Methods: Using The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we calculated descriptive statistics and mean differences in bio-marker measured allostatic load by arrest history stratified by race/ethnicity and sex.

Results: One-third of participants experienced at least one arrest, and most experienced arrests only as adults. Allostatic load scores were higher for those that had ever experienced an arrest compared to never (mean difference: 0.58 (0.33, 0.84)). Similar results held for men and women and across race/ethnicity, but Black non-Hispanic individuals had higher allostatic load at all levels compared to other individuals.

Conclusions: Experiencing both any arrest and multiple arrests were associated with higher allostatic load. The stress of arrests may contribute to physiological maladaptations and poor health. The public health and law enforcement fields must recognize the detrimental consequences of arrests on physiological stress and search for non-carceral solutions.

Citing Articles

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PMID: 39484954 PMC: 11717415. DOI: 10.1093/jnci/djae235.

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