scholarly journals How are social origin, destination and mobility linked to physical, mental, and self-rated health? Evidence from the United States

Author(s):  
Grzegorz Bulczak ◽  
Alexi Gugushvili ◽  
Olga Zelinska

AbstractFor decades, scholars have been exploring persistent inequalities in health by studying the roles of origin and destination socioeconomic positions (SEP), and the importance of social mobility trajectories from childhood to adult life in individuals’ wellbeing. However, this literature does not produce consistent and systematic findings on the relative importance of origin and destination SEP and independent social mobility effects. One of the main reasons for this is a set of methodological choices and decisions which researchers make. Arguably, one of the most critical aspects of research design is the operationalisation of SEP and the selection of health outcomes, usually without accounting for initial values of the health indicators employed. Using a nationally representative longitudinal dataset (Add Health) for the United States and diagonal reference models, in the present study, we examine how the choice of SEP in terms of educational, occupational, and income attainment, and the choice of health measures in terms of obesity, depressive symptoms, and self-rated health, influence findings on the origin and destination effects, as well as the health implications of social mobility. We also address the health selection problem by explicitly accounting for adolescents’ health in terms of each health outcome considered. Our results indicate that both choosing SEP and health measures, and accounting for social mobility and adolescent health have a noticeable impact on the relative importance of social origin and destination positions for health outcomes. We do not find evidence that social mobility has an independent effect on health, or that individuals’ previous health status moderates this association.

2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
KRISTI RAHRIG JENKINS ◽  
MOHAMMED U. KABETO ◽  
KENNETH M. LANGA

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this article is to investigate the relationship between spousal care-giving and declines in functioning and self-rated health among older care-givers. The authors used data from the 2000 and 2002 waves of the United States Health and Retirement Study, a biennial longitudinal survey of a nationally representative cohort of adults aged 50 or more years. Two outcomes were examined, declines in functioning and declines in self-rated health. Care-givers were classified into three groups: no care-giving, less than 14 hours of care-giving per week, and 14 or more hours care-giving per week. To assess declines in functioning, two summary scores were created of limitations in basic and instrumental Activities of Daily Living. To assess declines in self-rated health, we compared responses from 2000 and 2002. In the fully adjusted models, care-giving hours did not have an independent effect on declines in functioning or self-rated health. The relationship between care-giving hours and declines in functioning and self-rated health is probably attributable to socio-demographic characteristics, mainly age. The findings suggest that spousal care-giving does not of itself harm functional health or perceived health among older adult care-givers. Understanding the differential effects of these socio-economic characteristics with care-giving hours on health will be useful in promoting the health of older adult care-givers and treating their disorders.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. eabd7204
Author(s):  
J. Clinton ◽  
J. Cohen ◽  
J. Lapinski ◽  
M. Trussler

Rampant partisanship in the United States may be the largest obstacle to the reduced social mobility most experts see as critical to limiting the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Analyzing a total of just over 1.1 million responses collected daily between 4 April and 10 September reveals not only that partisanship is more important than public health concerns for explaining individuals’ willingness to stay at home and reduce social mobility but also that the effect of partisanship has grown over time—especially among Republicans. All else equal, the relative importance of partisanship for the increasing (un)willingness of Republicans to stay at home highlights the challenge that politics poses for public health.


2020 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 148-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea L. Oliverio ◽  
Lindsay K. Admon ◽  
Laura H. Mariani ◽  
Tyler N.A. Winkelman ◽  
Vanessa K. Dalton

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Laurin ◽  
Holly R. Engstrom ◽  
Adam Alic

Social mobility is limited in most industrialized countries, and especially in the United States: Children born to relatively poor parents are less likely to prosper than other children. This observation has multiple explanations; in the current article, we focus on emerging motivational perspectives, synthesizing them into a novel integrative framework grounded in a classic theory of motivation: expectancy-value theory. Together, these findings indicate that individuals with lower socioeconomic status (SES) may be less motivated to achieve status relative to individuals with higher SES—not because of their own personal failings, but as a result of their material, social and cultural contexts. We then consider the significant theoretical advantages of this integrative framework, most notably that it enables us to consider how the disparate perspectives linking motivation to SES are linked and may at times compound or offset each other. In turn, this enables us to make sophisticated predictions concerning the conditions that will enable individuals with low SES to escape the vicious cycle of low motivation. Moreover, our account helps bridge the gap between explanations that locate the cause for low social mobility within individuals and those that locate it in the broader system. We end by addressing implications for the psychological understanding of low status and implications for social policy.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. e0200332
Author(s):  
Shane A. Kavanagh ◽  
Julia M. Shelley ◽  
Christopher Stevenson

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Grace Lordan ◽  
John Quiggin

The idea of using 'fat taxes’ to curb obesity rates has been raised by many. In particular, the idea of taxing sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) has received considerable attention in the United States and has recently been discussed by President Obama. Rather less attention has been given to the alternative of 'thin subsidies’, that is, subsidies for the consumption of foods or beverages likely to be associated with reduced incidence of obesity. This commentary examines the case for a subsidy for artificially sweetened beverages (ASBs) or 'diet soft drinks’. In this commentary, we outline the evidence on the relationship between health outcomes, most notably obesity, and the consumption of SSBs and ASBs. In the light of the evidence we consider the economic effects of taxing SSBs, and the way in which those effects would be modified by the adoption of the alternative 'thin subsidy’ based on subsidising ASBs.


2018 ◽  
Vol 133 (2_suppl) ◽  
pp. 60S-74S ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Sweeney ◽  
Tamika Hoyte ◽  
Mesfin S. Mulatu ◽  
Jacquelyn Bickham ◽  
Antoine D. Brantley ◽  
...  

Objectives: The Care and Prevention in the United States Demonstration Project included implementation of a Data to Care strategy using surveillance and other data to (1) identify people with HIV infection in need of HIV medical care or other services and (2) facilitate linkages to those services to improve health outcomes. We present the experiences of 4 state health departments: Illinois, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Virginia. Methods: The 4 state health departments used multiple databases to generate listings of people with diagnosed HIV infection (PWH) who were presumed not to be in HIV medical care or who had difficulty maintaining viral suppression from October 1, 2013, through September 29, 2016. Each health department prioritized the listings (eg, by length of time not in care, by viral load), reviewed them for accuracy, and then disseminated the listings to staff members to link PWH to HIV care and services. Results: Of 16 391 PWH presumed not to be in HIV medical care, 9852 (60.1%) were selected for follow-up; of those, 4164 (42.3%) were contacted, and of those, 1479 (35.5%) were confirmed to be not in care. Of 794 (53.7%) PWH who accepted services, 694 (87.4%) were linked to HIV medical care. The Louisiana Department of Health also identified 1559 PWH as not virally suppressed, 764 (49.0%) of whom were eligible for follow-up. Of the 764 PWH who were eligible for follow-up, 434 (56.8%) were contacted, of whom 269 (62.0%) had treatment adherence issues. Of 153 PWH who received treatment adherence services, 104 (68.0%) showed substantial improvement in viral suppression. Conclusions: The 4 health departments established procedures for using surveillance and other data to improve linkage to HIV medical care and health outcomes for PWH. To be effective, health departments had to enhance coordination among surveillance, care programs, and providers; develop mechanisms to share data; and address limitations in data systems and data quality.


Author(s):  
Adolfo G. Cuevas ◽  
David R. Williams

The Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study was the first national health study to include a comprehensive battery to measure both major acute and chronic experiences of discrimination. Studies using MIDUS data have made significant contributions to the growing area of research on discrimination and health. This chapter provides an overview of research on discrimination and health, giving special attention to how findings from the MIDUS study have contributed to this literature. It provides a description of the discrimination instruments in MIDUS and summarizes key MIDUS findings that have examined discrimination in relation to health outcomes. This chapter outlines priority areas for future research. With growing recognition of the need to better understand the conditions under which specific aspects of discrimination are pathogenic for particular social groups, this chapter highlights the importance of using MIDUS to reach these goals.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas E Fuller-Rowell ◽  
Olivia I. Nichols ◽  
Markus Jokela ◽  
Eric S. Kim ◽  
Elif D. Yildirim ◽  
...  

The strength of the association between childhood socioeconomic disadvantage (SED) and adult health is an important indicator of health stratification and the degree to which health outcomes are determined early in life. However, changes in the strength of this association over historic time are largely unexamined in the United States. Utilizing data from two independent national samples of adults collected 17 years apart (1995 and 2012), the current study examined changes in the strength of the association between childhood SED and adult health. Childhood SED was scored as an aggregate index from measures of parent occupational prestige, childhood poverty exposure, and parent education. Five measures of adult health were considered: BMI, waist circumference, chronic conditions, functional limitations, and self-rated health. Results indicated that the association between childhood SED and all five health outcomes was significantly stronger in the 2012 sample than the 1995 sample, with the magnitude of the association being more than twice as large in the more recent sample for four out of five outcomes. Findings persisted after adjusting for age, sex, race, marital status, and number of children. Results suggest that the socioeconomic circumstances of childhood have become a stronger predictor of adult health in recent decades. Replication and examination of mechanisms for these effects vis-à-vis changing pathways from childhood SED to adult health through adult status attainments, work environment characteristics, or unfair treatment, is warranted.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Jose Arenas ◽  
Sara Zhou ◽  
Arthur Thomas ◽  
Jici Wang ◽  
Gilberto Vila Arroyo ◽  
...  

Introduction: Social determinants of health, such as food security, are an important target for health providers, particularly in the care of patients from underserved populations, including the uninsured and socially marginalized. Preliminary research has shown that food insecurity status (FIS) is associated with negative health outcomes.Objective: We aim to present a concise, yet comprehensive resource that lists the health outcomes associated with FIS. This guide is meant to provide innovative health providers with the tools needed to justify the importance of using FIS screening and treatment as a preventive medicine intervention.Methods: We conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed manuscripts that studied FIS in the United States of America (USA) and at least one health outcome. We searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Scopus and had multiple reviewers examine each abstract and manuscript. We only retained peer-reviewed studies that contained USA data, directly measured FIS, and directly compared FIS to a health outcome.Results: The initial search yielded 1,817 manuscripts. After screening abstracts for duplicates and inclusion criteria, a total of 117 manuscripts were retained and fully examined. Several manuscripts showed significant association between FIS and neurologic, cardiac, endocrine, and pulmonary health outcomes. Studies in the USA population show robust associations between FIS and poor mental health (including depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, impaired cognitive functioning, and epilepsy), metabolic syndrome, hyperlipidemia, greater risk for bone fracture in children, higher risk of end-stage renal disease in patients with chronic kidney disease, self-reported poor health, and higher mortality in patients with the human immunodeficiency virus. Though other literature reviews show positive associations between FIS and health outcomes such as diabetes, body mass index, and hypertension, our systematic review showed mixed results.Conclusions: FIS leaves underserved populations at risk for negative health outcomes. More research should be done to examine the effects of FIS alleviation as a preventative medicine intervention.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document