The role of socioeconomic factors in Black-White health inequities across the life course: Point-in-time measures, long-term exposures, and differential health returns.

نویسنده

  • Courtney Boen
چکیده

Research links Black-White health disparities to racial differences in socioeconomic status (SES), but understanding of the role of SES in racial health gaps has been restricted by reliance on static measures of health and socioeconomic well-being that mask the dynamic quality of these processes and ignore the racialized nature of the SES-health connection. Utilizing twenty-three years of longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (1984-2007), this study uses multilevel growth curve models to examine how multiple dimensions of socioeconomic well-being-including long-term economic history and differential returns to SES-contribute to the life course patterning of Black-White health disparities across two critical markers of well-being: body mass index (N = 9057) and self-rated health (N = 11,329). Findings indicate that long-term SES exerts a significant influence on both body mass index and self-rated health, net of point-in-time measures, and that Black-White health gaps are smallest in models that adjust for both long-term and current SES. I also find that Blacks and Whites receive differential health returns to increases in SES, which suggests that other factors-such as neighborhood segregation and exposure racial discrimination-may restrict Blacks from converting increases in SES into health improvements in the same way as Whites. Together, these processes contribute to the life course patterning of Black-White health gaps and raise concerns about previous misestimation of the role of SES in racial health disparities.

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

Inequities in the Freedom to Lead a Flourishing and Healthy Life: Time for a Progressive Social Protections Framework; Comment on “Inequities in the Freedom to Lead a Flourishing and Healthy Life: Issues for Healthy Public Policy”

Evidence now shows that the key drivers of poor health are social factors, such as education, employment, housing and urban environments. Variations in these social factors—or the conditions in which we live our lives—have lead to a growth in health inequalities within and between countries. One of the key challenges facing those concerned with health equity is how to effect change across the b...

متن کامل

Social Determinants of Delayed Gratification Among American Children

Background: A wide array of Socioeconomic Status (SES) indicators show differential effects for the members of diverse social groups. Researchers know a little about the ethnic variation and the effects of family income on delay discounting which is the predictor of risk behaviors. Objectives: This study examined the effect of family income and its differences on delayed gratification between ...

متن کامل

Understanding the Role of Public Administration in Implementing Action on the Social Determinants of Health and Health Inequities

Many of the societal level factors that affect health – the ‘social determinants of health (SDH)’ – exist outside the health sector, across diverse portfolios of government, and other major institutions including non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the private sector. This has created growing interest in how to create and implement public policies which will drive better and fairer health...

متن کامل

Combined Effects of Race and Educational Attainment on Physician Visits Over 24 Years in a National Sample of Middle-Aged and Older Americans

Background: The literature on Minorities’ Diminished Returns (MDRs) have shown worse than expected health of the members of racial and ethnic minority groups particularly Blacks. Theoretically, this effect can be in part due to weaker effects of educational attainment on preventive care and disease management in highly educated racial and ethnic minorities. Object...

متن کامل

The dynamics of income and neighborhood context for population health: do long-term measures of socioeconomic status explain more of the black/white health disparity than single-point-in-time measures?

Socioeconomic status, though a robust and strong predictor of health, has generally been unable to fully explain the health gap between blacks and whites in the United States. However, at both the individual and neighborhood levels, socioeconomic status is often treated as a static factor with only single-point-in-time measurements. These cross-sectional measures fail to account for possible he...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:
  • Social science & medicine

دوره 170  شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2016