Association between gait speed and residential environment amongst older adults

The ability to help mitigate prevalence of disability in the aging population may be developed by expanding the list of known risk factors to include environmental exposures. Understanding environmental risk factors for health is of public health importance. We contribute to these efforts by asking: Are attributes of the social and built residential environment able to explain between-people differences in gait speed? A cross-sectional analysis of relatively healthy community-dwelling older adults was conducted using baseline participants (n=2,637; female=52%; average age=74+2.89; Black=39%) from the Health, Aging and Body Composition (Health ABC) Study. Performed 6 meter walk at usual gait speed was the outcome of interest. The associations between measures of the residential environment (tracts) and gait speed (meters per-second, m/sec) were assessed using linear regressions. After adjusting for socioeconomics, health behaviors and conditions, results indicated that neither street connectivity nor net residential density explained between-people variance in gait speed. Poverty concentration did explain between-people variance in gait speed. Living in a tract where a 30% or more of the residents are in-poverty is associated with a 0.02 m/sec slower gait speed when compared to living in a tract where poverty concentration is <9%. In this observational study, poverty concentration in residential environment was significantly associated with gait speed. Research should continue to explore if and how aspects of the residential environment may explain physical function differences among older adults

On the Relationship between Gender Roles Attitudes, Religious Ideology and Familism in a Sample of Adults in the United States

Family and religious ideologies may influence gender role attitudes in the United States, where gender inequality persists. Research suggests that family and religious ideologies shape beliefs of how men and women should behave—where gender egalitarianism is lowest amongst those with strong family orientations and/or strong patriarchal religious ideologies. This article investigated if and how family and religious ideologies are related to gender role attitudes by using cross-sectional data from the Longitudinal Study of Generations (n=1,615; mean age=50; 61% female; 32% racial minorities). Results indicate a direct relationship between gender role ideology and the following: religious ideology and familism. Because gender equality is important, future studies should investigate the causal mechanisms by which religious ideologies and familistic beliefs influence social stratification through gender role attitudes

Self-Care and Mobility Disability at Mid-Life in Lucky Few, Early-, and Late-Baby Boom Birth-Cohorts

Disability is related in definite ways with makers of social stratum, as it can be influenced by and has the potential to contribute to the production and reproduction of social stratification. Intersectional markers of social stratification processes are ignored determinants of health. The Class, Race, Sex (CRS) hypothesis presented here argues that a low-education, racial-minority, and female disadvantage will compound to affect the prevalence and risks of disability. The evidence presented validates the CRS hypothesis by showing that disability prevalence and risk clusters first by class, race, and then sex. The cross-sectional study of community-dwelling adults in the Unites States, between the ages of 45 and 44, uses Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) 2010 files. The Lucky Few birth-cohort (born between 1936 and 1945) comes from the decennial 1990 PUMS file. The Early-Baby Boom birth-cohort (born between 1946 and 1955) comes from the decennial 2000 PUMS file. The Late-Baby Boom birth-cohort (born between 1956 and 1965) comes from the American Community Survey (ACS) 2010 PUMS file. Population-weighted disability prevalence and logistic regression models, using a total of 624,510 observations, support the CRS hypothesis. Decreasing health disparities requires that we continue to explore how the age-disability association differs between those at lower and upper socioeconomic stratum

Demographic Profile of the “Farmworker Population” in the United States

The health and economic well-being of farmworkers has been investigated by social scientists for many decades [1,2,3]. General research on occupational safety and farmworker justice has also been developed more recently [4]. Because Hispanics/Latinos are commonly associated with farmworker occupations, especially migrant farm work, research has paid special attention to their population [5]. For example, researchers have investigated the health of Latina farmworkers [6], injury in youth from Latino farmworker families [7], and learning ability amongst Latino farmworkers [8]. However, Latinos only make up about half of the “farmworker population” is the United States (US). The specific aim of this technical report was to estimate the farmworker population size by geographical division (shown in Figure 1) within the contiguous US and by basic demographic factors. The report helps others1 by using large-scale national data to delineate the sociodemographic profile of the farmworker population in the US mainland

Demographic Profile, Geographic Distribution, Disability Prevalence, and Likelihood of being In-Poverty amongst Grandparents Responsible for Grandchildren

Evidence-based research on Grandparents Responsible for Grandchildren (GRfG) continues to grow in recent decades. This brief report expands global knowledge on custodial grandparents by making use of a large data resource in the United States (US). The specific aim was to delineate the demographic profile, geographic distribution, and prevalence of specific-disabilities for the GRFG population in the US mainland. We also explore how demographic factors are associated with likelihood of being in-poverty. The analysis used data from the 2009-2013 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) file. The ACS is a nationally representative, yearly, statistical survey administered by the US Census Bureau and is the premier source for detailed information about the US population. The 141,270 actual units in the microdata are estimated to represent about 2,704,327 GRfGs. Population-weighted estimates detail the GRfG population and population-weighted multivariable logistic regressions indicate all race-ethnic GRfG minorities were at greater risk for being in-poverty when compared to Non-Hispanic-White GRfGs. Investigations should continue to paint the population profile of GRfGs using large-scale data sources to better understand the needs of custodial grandparents

Poverty in the Texas borderland and lower Mississippi Delta: A comparative analysis of differences by family type

We provide a comparative analysis of county-level poverty in the two poorest regions of the United States - the Texas Borderland and the Lower Mississippi Delta - with a special focus on differences by family type. Our results reveal important regional variation in both the prevalence of poverty and the composition of the poor population across major family types. Using OLS regression models of family type-specific poverty we demonstrate three key findings: 1) There are no significant regional differences in poverty levels by family type between the Borderland and the Delta, net of important structural factors that characterize the regions; 2) with the exception of the employment rate, the structural factors associated with poverty among married couple and single female-headed families are quite different; and 3) paradoxically, areas in the Borderland with high in-migration are especially likely to suffer from high married-couple family poverty. Our results suggest the need for regionally targeted and demographically tailored anti-poverty policies.family structure, Mississippi Delta, persistent poverty, poverty, regional poverty, Texas Borderland

Mexican-Origin Interregional Migration from the Southwest: Human, Household, and Community Capital Hypotheses

This research addresses the question of what factors lead Mexican-origin individuals living in the U.S. to seek a new residence outside their Southwestern state of residence. The analysis examines three hypotheses: (1) the human capital hypothesis that college graduates have higher odds of migrating out of the core region than those with less than a high school education; (2) the household social capital hypothesis that posits that the presence of a household member born outside the core increases the odds of migration; and (3) the community social capital hypothesis which states that householders residing in an area with community social capital will have higher odds of leaving the core than those living in areas with no community social capital. These hypotheses are investigated using three models: (1) a full model that includes both native- and foreign-born Mexican-origin householders; (2) a native-born model which includes only native-born Southwest householders; and (3) a foreign-born models that includes only foreign-born Mexican-origin householders. By using the Saenzian region-concepts of core, periphery, and frontier, I find: (1) limited support for the human capital hypothesis; (2) consistent support for the household social capital; and (3) no support for the community social capital. The analysis is important to sociological theory and demography because it specifically endeavors to explain how the connections between three kinds of capital?human, household, and community?shape the decision to leave the Southwest for other regions of the country. By computing statistical and theoretical particulars, the thesis ascertains that migration-selectivity theories regarding the general population are useful in theorizing Mexican-origin interregional migration. Findings expand existing sociological literature by theorizing how human, household, and community capital operate under the Saenzian regions to shape the interregional migration of the growing Mexican-origin population of the U.S

A Multilevel Analysis of Mobility Disability in the United States Population: Educational Advantage Diminishes as Race-Ethnicity Poverty Gap Increases

Until now, they idea that economic inequalities affect health outcomes remains of interest and a topic under debated. If disability can be considered an adequate indicator of health and an acceptable argument could be made that educational attainment is partially affected by "life changes", then investigating how educational attainment correlates with the likelihood of being "disable" and how it varies by level of social inequality in residential area may be of interest for research on health disparities. Microdata from the American Community Survey (ACS) 2009-2011 is used in a hierarchical logistic model that accounts for various person-level factors and differences in race-ethnicity poverty gap at the Public Use Microdata Area (PUMA) level. After nesting a total of 3,752,372 observations over 2,055 PUMAs, results indicate that risk for mobility disability decreases with educational attainment and that this protective effect decreases as the race-ethnicity poverty gap in the PUMA increases. Because unjust and avoidable health disparities should be mitigated, future work should continue on the topic

Sociospatial Inequality: A Multilevel and Geo-Spatial Analysis of Latino Poverty

Sociology at its core has always been interested in understanding how society works. Previous studies on social stratification have sought to outline who gets what, when, and why. This project introduces the where element to advance our understanding of how resource distribution affects life chances. The research question is: Does the percent of Latinos in the area of residence have an influence on Latino?s individual poverty over and above the influence on poverty of the person characteristics? The study ascertains how micro-level inequality is influenced by macro-level attributes and explores how spatial non-stationarity plays a role in these mechanics. This sociospatial inequality investigation will delineate how individual-level stratifying mechanisms are influenced by context-level structural attributes and how sociospatial non-stationary processes play a role in these mechanics. The dissertation is conceptually driven by Hubert M. Blalock's 1970 theory on minority relationships. Blalock posited the testable hypothesis that discrimination against oppressed groups increases when their population rises. Using theoretical propositions inspired by Blalock leads to the testing of the following two formal hypothesis: the multilevel hypothesis (H1) focuses on macro-level effects, I hypothesize that as the percent of Latinos/as in the area of residence increases, the odds of being in poverty will increase for Latinas/os; on the spatial hypothesis (H2), I hypothesize that the statistical association between percent Latina/o and percent poverty is spatially nonstationary. I find that H1 cannot be falsified. The models reveal, as Blalock predicted, that as the percent of Latinos/as in the area of residence increases, the odds of being in poverty increase for Latinas/os (even after controlling for various level-1, level-2, and GWR-level-2 factors). I also find that H2 could not be falsified. I find that the statistical association between percent Latina/o and percent poverty is spatially nonstationary. My multilevel and spatial modeling investigation was unable to falsify Blalock's minority group threat theory. Hierarchical models indicate that as the percent of Latino/a increases, the likelihood of being in poverty for Latinas/os increases. This statically significant relationship holds constant even after spatial nonstationarity level-2 control factors are introduced