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The Association Between Perceived Discrimination, Age and Proportion of Lifetime in the United States Among Somali Immigrants: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

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Abstract

Discrimination is detrimental to health. Little is known about perceived discrimination among Somali immigrants. We examined whether age or proportion of lifetime in the United States was associated with perceived discrimination among Somali immigrants. Guided by Intersectionality, we described a secondary analysis of Everyday Discrimination Scale (EDS) survey data from the Healthy Immigrant Community study. Younger participants ( ≤40 years) experienced more discrimination than older participants ( >40 years). Higher education, being male, and earning $20,000-$39,999 was associated with more perceived discrimination. These findings suggest that Somali immigrants who are younger, more formally educated, male, and/or earn $20,000-$39,000 report more discrimination than their counterparts. Possible explanations include exposure to discrimination outside the Somali community or more awareness about racism. Alternatively, the EDS may not capture the discrimination experienced by Somali women or older adults. Further research is needed to address the discrimination experienced by Somali immigrants. Clinical Trial Registration: NCT05136339, November 29,2021.

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Data Availability

We will grant access to the participant-level dataset and statistical code pending approval by Rochester Healthy Community Partnership (RHCP) community partners.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the Rochester Healthy Community Partnership members and partners who participated in the development of the Healthy Immigrant Community intervention. The authors also wish to thank the C2DREAM Paper Hatchling Program for helping launch this work.

Funding

Research reported in this publication was conducted in partnership between the University of Minnesota Program in Health Disparities Research, the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, the Mayo Clinic, and Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute. Funding provided by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number P50MD017342.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Clinical and Translational Science, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

    Abby M. Lohr, Irene G. Sia & Mark L. Wieland

  2. Division of Community Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, and Palliative Care, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

    Abby M. Lohr, Ahmed A. Mohamed & Mark L. Wieland

  3. University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Rebekah Pratt

  4. Community Based Research, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

    Hana Dirie & Yahye Ahmed

  5. Division of Public Health, Infectious Diseases, and Occupational Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

    Hana Dirie, Yahye Ahmed & Irene G. Sia

  6. Intercultural Mutual Assistance Association, Rochester, MN, USA

    Hindi Elmi & Ahmed Osman

  7. Somali American Social Service Association, Rochester, MN, USA

    Omar Nur

  8. Division of Biomedical Statistics and Informatics, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55902, USA

    Paul Novotny

  9. Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

    Joan M. Griffin

  10. Division of Health Care Delivery Research, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

    Joan M. Griffin

Authors
  1. Abby M. Lohr
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  3. Hana Dirie
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  4. Yahye Ahmed
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  6. Omar Nur
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  7. Ahmed Osman
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  8. Paul Novotny
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  9. Ahmed A. Mohamed
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  10. Joan M. Griffin
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  11. Irene G. Sia
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  12. Mark L. Wieland
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Data collection and interpretation were performed by Abby Lohr, Hana Dirie, Yahye Ahmed, Hindi Elmi, Omar Nur, and Ahmed Osman. Paul Novotny analyzed the data. Abby Lohr wrote the first draft of the manuscript and all authors commented on and substantively revised later versions. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Abby M. Lohr.

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Competing Interest

The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Ethical Approval

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Institutional Review Board at the Mayo Clinic (October 19, 2021/No. 21-009339).

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study

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Lohr, A.M., Pratt, R., Dirie, H. et al. The Association Between Perceived Discrimination, Age and Proportion of Lifetime in the United States Among Somali Immigrants: A Cross-Sectional Analysis. J Immigrant Minority Health (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-024-01589-3

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