DC CFAR investigator, Lisa Bowleg, PhD, has recently been awarded an R01 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) entitled, "Reducing Black Men's Drug Use and Co-Occurring Negative Mental and Physical Health Outcomes: Intersectionality, Social-Structural Stressors, and Protective Factors".
This project seeks to study drug use among Black men, and other co-occurring negative health outcomes associated with social-structural stressors. Drug use is a contributing factor in six of the top ten leading causes of death among Black men ages 18 to 54. Social-structural stressors, including discrimination based on race or race and sexual identity, and drug use to cope with stress, are well known gateways to drug use among Black adults. The researchers seek to address critical research gaps that exist on this topic by conducting a longitudinal cross-lagged explanatory- sequential (QUANT→qual) mixed methods study to test, via structural equation modeling, a conceptual model of social-structural stressors, protective factors, and drug use (alcohol, marijuana, nicotine, illicit drug use) and co-occurring negative mental (e.g., psychological distress) and physical (e.g., blood pressure) health outcomes among Black men at the intersection of sexual identity and socioeconomic position. The goal of the project is to develop multi-level (individual and social-structural) interventions to reduce drug use and encourage mental and physical health among Black men as they encounter various risks.
Click here to read the full abstract.