Rupsha Singh, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities

Poor sleep is associated with adverse cardiometabolic and neurocognitive health outcomes and mortality. Previous research shows that women from racial and ethnic minority groups are disproportionately affected by poor sleep health and may have maladaptive coping strategies and limited access to sleep health care due to structural racism and discrimination. Recommended behavioral interventions for sleep health is primarily provided by clinical psychologists, but a survey of clinical psychologists in the United States and Canada found that 95% had no clinical sleep training. It is thus likely that clinicians who have specialized training in sleep may be even more limited in federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), which primarily serve communities and populations that are underserved, including people with low socioeconomic status and people from racial and ethnic minority groups. This makes it important to determine the availability of health care providers who can accurately assess and treat sleep difficulties and disorders in FQHCs. Also, within sleep-related health care research, studies on strategies to mitigate or cope with sleep problems among women from racial and ethnic minority groups are limited.

To address these gaps, Dr. Singh’s study will highlight the availability of sleep medicine specialists in FQHCs and identify coping strategies that may mitigate the impact of racial discrimination on sleep among women from racial and ethnic minority groups in the United States. Dr. Singh and research team will use a sequential mixed methods design (i.e., quantitative NIEHS Sister Study cohort data on discrimination, coping, and sleep measures and qualitative data from focus groups) to address the following objectives:

1. Identify specific coping strategies that women from racial and ethnic minority groups use in dealing with experiences of racial discrimination.
2. Identify the ways that coping strategies may differ by racial and ethnic group.
3. Examine whether coping strategies mediate the association between racial discrimination and sleep health.

The research team will also compare the availability of sleep medicine specialists in FQHCs (using data from OCHIN) with non-FQHCs. This study will provide valuable information on intervention targets to promote sleep health among groups experiencing sleep health disparities.