The physiological toll of arrests: An examination of arrest history on midlife allostatic load.

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.

Race/ethnicity, immigrant generation, and physiological dysregulation among U.S. adults entering midlife.

This study aimed to better understand racial/ethnic and immigrant generation disparities in physiological dysregulation in the early portion of the adult life course. Using biomarker-measured allostatic load, we focused on the health of child/adolescent immigrant, second-, and third-plus-generation Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White Americans in their late 30s and early 40s. We drew on restricted-access data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), Waves I and V. The results indicate lower levels of physiological dysregulation for most racial/ethnic groups of child/adolescent immigrants relative to both third-plus-generation Whites and third-plus-generation same race/ethnic peers. Socioeconomic, social, and behavioral control variables measured in different parts of the life course had little impact on these patterns. Thus, evidence of an immigrant health advantage is found for this cohort using allostatic load as a measure of physiological dysregulation, even though immigrants in Add Health arrived at the United States during childhood and adolescence. Implications of these findings in the context of immigrant health advantages and trajectories are discussed.