Health Conditions Flashcards
Warner & Haward. (2006). Early-life origins of the race gap in men’s mortality.
Gist: Black men’s higher mortality rates were partially explained by early life socioeconomic conditions, specifically parental occupation and family structure. Lower socioeconomic standing and living in homes lacking both biological parents increased risk of death among blacks. This operated indirectly, however, via adult socioeconomic achievement processes (i.e., education, family income, wealth, and occupational complexity).
Montez & Hayward. (2014). Cumulative childhood adversity, educational attainment, and active life expectancy among U.S. adults.
Gist: Examined whether early-life disadvantages shortened lives and increased the number and faction of years living with functional impairment. Also examined the degree to which educational attainment mediated and moderated the health consequences of early-life disadvantages. Within educational levels, adults from disadvantaged childhoods lived fewer total years and had fewer active years compared to adults from advantaged neighborhoods. Educational attainment did not ameliorate this impact. However, educational attainment had a larger effect on health than early-life conditions. Total and active life expectancies were higher for highly educated adults from disadvantaged childhoods than for lower educated adults from advantaged neighborhoods.
Elo, Beltran-Sanchez, & Macinko. (2014). The contribution of health care and other interventions to black-white disparities in life expectancy, 1980-2007.
Gist: Used the concept of avoidable/amenable mortality to estimate cause-of-death contributions to the differences in life expectancy between whites & blacks by gender over time. Avoidable mortality can be in two categories: (1) conditions for which effective medical treatment is available; (2) conditions avoidable by behavior modification and policy. Causes amenable to public health interventions made a large contribution to life expectancy differences among men. Contribution of HIV/AIDS widened the racial difference for men and women, but declined more recently.
Finch. (2003). Early origins of the gradient: The relationship between socioeconomic status and infant mortality in the United States.
Gist: Investigated various theories regarding SES gradient theories on infant mortality. More recent research suggests a curvilinear relationship between SES and health in which there are diminishing returns as SES increases.
Wilkinson & Marmot: SES gradients are markers for an individual’s social hierarchy; the psychosocial effects of social hierarchies (mediated by stress processes) were most important determinants of health inequalities.
Kawachi: Income inequality within a country related to health through 3 processes: (1) high income inequality may lead to underinvestment in human capital; (2) high income inequality is associated with low social capital investments that may erode the social fabric; and (3) perceived disparities in income may work through psychological pathways to diminish health (e.g., relative deprivation).
Hayward & Gorman. (2004). The long arm of childhood: The influence of early-life social conditions on mens’ mortality.
Gist: Men’s mortality is associated with an array of childhood conditions, including socioeconomic status, family living arrangements, mother’s work status, rural residence, & parents’ nativity. Except parental nativity, socioeconomic achievement processes in adulthood and lifestyle factors mediated these associations. Education, family income, household wealth, & occupation mediated the influence of SES in childhood. Adult lifestyle factors (especially body mass) mediated the effects of family living arrangements in childhood, mother’s work status, & rural residence. Highlights the importance of economic & educational policies targeted at children’d well-being as health policies that have far-reaching effects.
Doubeni et al. (2012). Health status, neighborhood socioeconomic context, and premature mortality in the Untied States: The National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study.
Gist: Neighborhood socioeconomic inequalities led to large disparities in premature mortality risk but only among those in good-to-excellent health. After accounting for demographic characteristics, educational achievement, lifestyle, and medical conditions, neighborhood socioeconomic inequalities did not predict premature mortality among adults with poor health.
Thorpe et al. (2012). Racial differences in mortality in older adults: Factors beyond socioeconomic status.
Gist: examined the association between race and mortality and the role of SES, health insurance, psychosocial factors, behavioral factors, & health-related factors. SES inequalities by race accounted for almost all of the black excess risk of death from coronary heart disease. Behavioral factors, self-rated health, & health insurance status were primary factors explaining racial differences in all-cause and cancer mortality.
Crimmins, Hayward, Hagedorn, Saito, & Brouard. (2009). Change in disability-free life expectancy for Americans 79 years old and older.
Gist: Examined changes in life expectancy free of disability over time. Life expectancies with and without ADL and/or IADL disability were calculated. Changes in disability-free life expectancy resulted from decreases in disability incidence and increases in the incidence of recovery from disability across cohorts. While reductions in incidence and increases in recovery work to decrease population prevalence of disability, declining mortality among the disabled has been a force towards increasing disability prevalence.
