The Hispanic Paradox: Race/Ethnicity and Nativity, Immigrant Enclave Residence and Cognitive Impairment Among Older US Adults

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137472/1/jgs14806.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137472/2/jgs14806_am.pd

LXPCT_2: Stata module to calculate multistate life expectancies

lxpct_2 calculates multistate life expectancies from age-specific transition probabilities. Like a standard life table, the multi-state, or increment-decrement, life table allows a researcher to calculate expected years of life while adjusting for age-related differences in the composition of various populations.life expectancy, transition probability

Twentieth Century U.S. Racial Inequalities in Mortality: Changes in the Average Age of Death and the Variability in the Age of Death for White and non-White Men and Women, 1900-2002

This paper develops a new theoretical and empirical approach to studying historical trends in social inequalities in mortality. The author describes how within group inequality in mortality (e.g. IQRo) can be used to identify the timing and pace of epidemiological transitions, and she relates differences between population groups in IQRo to theory on social inequalities in mortality. Using data on mortality for U.S. white and non-white men and women over the period 1900-2002 and decomposing the patterns of change in IQRo, she finds that mortality declines have been later, slower, and have involved more irregular age-composition among non-whites than whites. As a result, racial differences in IQRo have dynamically diverged and converged while there has been a century of convergence in eo. These findings show that IQRo provides information about mortality differences that are concealed by eo and they provide insight into the theoretical trends in mortality associated with economic development, diffusion of innovations, institutional changes, and social stratification.mortality and race, health status indicators, life expectancy

Historical and Life Course Timing of the Male Mortality Disadvantage in Europe: Epidemiologic Transitions, Evolution, and Behavior

This study employs vital statistics data from Sweden, England, Wales, France, and Spain to examine male:female mortality differentials from 1750 through 2000 and their inter-relationship with epidemiological transitions. Across all ages and all time periods, the largest relative mortality disadvantages are to young adult men. When crisis mortality from the two world wars is removed, the authors show that the mortality in this young male age group is about two to three times the level of female mortality cross-nationally. In addition, they show that the timing of this stabilization in male mortality disadvantages occurs during the last half of the twentieth century, when their measure of epidemiological change also stabilizes at a new low level. The findings are consistent with an interdisciplinary theoretical model that links social, technological and epidemiological changes that occurred through the first half of the 20th century with the unmasking of mortality disadvantages among young adult men.mortality-sex differences, death-causes, men-mortality, Europe-statistics

Racial, ethnic, and gender differences in smoking cessation associated with employment and joblessness through young adulthood in the US

The dynamics of labor force participation and joblessness during young adulthood influence access to social and material resources and shape exposure to different sources of psychosocial strain. Differences in these dynamics by race, ethnicity, and gender are related to changes in a behavioral determinant of poor health (tobacco use) for young adults aging into midlife. Using discrete-time hazards models, we estimate the relationship between labor force participation in the past year and smoking cessation for US adults (ages 14-21 years in 1979) followed in a population-representative sample until 1998 (i.e. the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth). We assess the unique role of racial, ethnic and gender differences in exposure, vulnerability, and reactivity to employment and joblessness by controlling for social and economic resources obtained through working and by controlling for early life factors that select individuals into certain labor force and smoking trajectories. There are three main findings: (1) joblessness is more strongly associated with persistent daily smoking among women than among men; (2) fewer social and economic resources for women out of the labor force compared to employed women explains their lower cessation rates; and (3) lower cessation among unemployed women compared to employed women can only partially be explained by these resources. These findings illustrate how differential access to work-related social and economic resources is an important mediator of poor health trajectories. Contextual factors such as social norms and psychosocial strains at work and at home may play a unique role among European American men and women in explaining gender differences in smoking.USA Gender inequality Racial and ethnic differences Labor force participation Smoking cessation

Functioning, Forgetting, or Failing Health: Which Factors Are Associated With a Community-Based Move Among Older Adults?

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether the health and functioning of middle-aged and older adults are associated with an increased likelihood of community-based moves. METHOD: Biennial data from adults aged 51 and older in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and discrete-time survival models were used to assess the likelihood of community-based moves from 2000 to 2010 as a function of 11 measures of health and functioning. RESULTS: Respondents diagnosed with heart disease, stroke, hypertension, lung disease, and psychiatric problems were more likely to move during the study period than those with no such diagnosis. Changes in activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living functioning, cognitive impairment, and falls were also related to a greater likelihood of moving during the study period. Cancer and diabetes were not related to overall moves, although diabetes was associated with an increased likelihood of local moves. For the most part, it was longstanding not recent diagnoses that were significantly related to the likelihood of moving. DISCUSSION: Although some health conditions precipitate moves among middle-aged and older adults, others do not. This work has important implications for understanding the role of different aspects of health and functioning in the likelihood of migration among older adults

Constructing a Time-Invariant Measure of the Socio-economic Status of U.S. Census Tracts

Contextual research on time and place requires a consistent measurement instrument for neighborhood conditions in order to make unbiased inferences about neighborhood change. We develop such a time-invariant measure of neighborhood socio-economic status (NSES) using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses fit to census data at the tract level from the 1990 and 2000 U.S. Censuses and the 2008-2012 American Community Survey. A single factor model fit the data well at all three time periods, and factor loadings--but not indicator intercepts--could be constrained to equality over time without decrement to fit. After addressing remaining longitudinal measurement bias, we found that NSES increased from 1990 to 2000, and then--consistent with the timing of the "Great Recession"--declined in 2008-2012 to a level approaching that of 1990. Our approach for evaluating and adjusting for time-invariance is not only instructive for studies of NSES but also more generally for longitudinal studies in which the variable of interest is a latent construct

The Hispanic Paradox: Race/Ethnicity and Nativity, Immigrant Enclave Residence and Cognitive Impairment Among Older US Adults

Hispanics, and particularly foreign-born Mexican Americans, have been shown to fare better across a range of health outcomes than might be expected given the generally higher levels of socioeconomic disadvantage in this population, a phenomena termed the "Hispanic Paradox". Previous research on social disparities in cognitive aging, however, has been unable to address both race/ethnicity and nativity (REN) in a nationally-representative sample of US adults leaving unanswered questions about potentially "paradoxical" advantages of Mexican ethnic-origins and the role of nativity, socioeconomic status (SES), and enclave residence. We employ biennial assessments of cognitive functioning to study prevalent and incident cognitive impairment (CI) within the three largest US REN groups: US-born non-Hispanic whites (US-NHW), US-born non-Hispanic blacks (US-NHB), US-born Mexican Americans (US-MA), and foreign-born Mexican Americans (FB-MA). Data come from a nationally-representative sample of community-dwelling older adults in the Health and Retirement Study linked with the 2000 Census and followed over 10 years (N = 8,433). Large disadvantages in prevalent and incident CI were observed for all REN minorities respective to US-born non-Hispanic whites. Individual and neighborhood SES accounted substantially for these disadvantages and revealed an immigrant advantage: FB-MA odds of prevalent CI were about half those of US-NHW and hazards of incident CI were about half those of US-MA. Residence in an immigrant enclave was protective of prevalent CI among FB-MA. The findings illuminate important directions for research into the sources of cognitive risk and resilience and provide guidance about CI screening within the increasingly diverse aging US population