Air Pollution and Mental Health Among African Americans and Caribbean Blacks: Findings from the National Survey of American Life

Air pollution disproportionately burdens Black communities in the United States and may contribute to mental health inequities. Guided by the riskscape and exposure–disease–stress frameworks, this study examined associations between ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and mental health disorders among African Americans and Caribbean Blacks. We merged National Survey of American Life data (N = 5,178) with census-tract spatially resolved PM2.5 estimates to create a novel environmental epidemiologic dataset. Logistic regression models were used to estimate associations between PM2.5 and lifetime mental health outcomes. Higher PM2.5 exposure was significantly associated with lower odds of generalized anxiety disorder but greater odds of any lifetime anxiety disorder among Caribbean Blacks. PM2.5 was not significantly associated with mental health outcomes among African Americans. Findings suggest anxiety-related conditions are highly sensitive to socially patterned, chronic air pollution. Crucially, differences between African Americans and Caribbean Blacks underscore the importance of within-group heterogeneity in environmental health research. By integrating high-resolution environmental data with a comprehensive dataset of Black Americans, this study advances the field. The findings highlight the need for policy strategies that jointly target environmental exposures and the social factors driving mental health vulnerability in diverse Black populations.