Critical Perspectives on Racial and Ethnic Differences in Health in Late Life

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• Publisher: National Academies Press
• Year: 2004
• Edition: 0
• eBook ISBN:
  9780309532006
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Index: Social Sciences

In their later years, Americans of different racial and ethnic backgrounds are not in equally good--or equally poor--health. There is wide variation, but on average older Whites are healthier than older Blacks and tend to outlive them. But Whites tend to be in poorer health than Hispanics and Asian Americans. This volume documents the differentials and considers possible explanations.Selection processes play a role: selective migration, for instance, or selective survival to advanced ages. Health differentials originate early in life, possibly even before birth, and are affected by events and experiences throughout the life course. Differences in socioeconomic status, risk behavior, social relations, and health care all play a role. Separate chapters consider the contribution of such factors and the biopsychosocial mechanisms that link them to health. This volume provides the empirical evidence for the research agenda provided in the separate report of the Panel on Race, Ethnicity, and Health in Later Life.

Table of contents

• FrontMatter
• Contributors
• Preface
• Contents
• 1 Introduction--Barney Cohen
• Section I--The Nature of Racial and Ethnic Differences
• 2 Racial and Ethnic Identification, Official Classifications, and Health Disparities--Gary D. Sandefur, Mary E. Campbell, and Jennifer Eggerling-Boeck
• 3 Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health and Mortality Among the U.S. Elderly Population--Robert A. Hummer, Maureen R. Benjamins, and Richard G. Rogers
• 4 Ethnic Differences in Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease--Jennifer J. Manly and Richard Mayeux
• Section II--Two Key Conceptual and Methodological Challenges
• 5 The Life-Course Contribution to Ethnic Disparities in Health--Clyde Hertzman
• 6 Selection Processes in the Study of Racial and Ethnic Differentials in Adult Health and Mortality--Alberto Palloni and Douglas C. Ewbank
• 7 Immigrant Health: Selectivity and Acculturation--Guillermina Jasso, Douglas S. Massey, Mark R. Rosenzweig, and James P. Smith
• Section III--The Search For Causal Pathways
• 8 Genetic Factors in Ethnic Disparities in Health--Richard S. Cooper
• 9 Race/Ethnicity, Socioeconomic Status, and Health--Eileen M. Crimmins, Mark D. Hayward, and Teresa E. Seeman
• 10 The Role of Social and Personal Resources in Ethnic Disparities in Late-Life Health--Carlos F. Mendes de Leon and Thomas A. Glass
• 11 What Makes a Place Healthy? Neighborhood Influences on Racial/ Ethnic Disparities in Health over the Life Course--Jeffrey D. Morenoff and John W. Lynch
• 12 Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Health Behaviors: A Challenge to Current Assumptions--Marilyn A. Winkleby and Catherine Cubbin
• 13 Cumulative Psychosocial Risks and Resilience: A Conceptual Perspective on Ethnic Health Disparities in Late Life--Hector F. Myers and Wei-Chin Hwang
• 14 Significance of Perceived Racism: Toward Understanding Ethnic Group Disparities in Health, the Later Years--Rodney Clark
• 15 A Neurovisceral Integration Model of Health Disparities in Aging--Julian F. Thayer and Bruce H. Friedman
• 16 Geography and Racial Health Disparities--Amitabh Chandra and Jonathan S. Skinner
• Section IV--The Challenge Of Identifying Effective Interventions
• 17 Behavioral Health Interventions: What Works and Why?--David M. Cutler
• Section V--Two International Comparisons
• 18 Ethnic Disparities in Aging Health: What Can We Learn from the United Kingdom?--James Y. Nazroo
• 19 An Exploratory Investigation into Racial Disparities in the Health of Older South Africans--Debbie Bradshaw, Rosana Norman, Ria Laubscher, Michelle Schneider, Nolwazi Mbananga, and Krisela Steyn