Aging and health: a longitudinal study

Kyriakos S. Markides, Dianne M. Timbers, J. Scott Osberg

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

A set of double jeopardy hypotheses predicting there is a double health disadvantage in growing old and being a member of an ethnic minority, female, of lower socioeconomic status, and unmarried is tested with data from a 4-yr longitudinal study of older Mexican Americans and Anglos. With the exception of socioeconomic status, little support is found for the double jeopardy predictions in a multivariate analysis of change in health. When subjects who died during the study interval were included in the analysis by assigning them the lowest score on health, the results changed somewhat: the relationship between age and decline in health was strengthened and the effect of sex changed from a direction suggesting that women show greater declines in health with age to a direction suggesting that men experience greater declines in health with age. Implications of the effect of deceased dropouts for studies on aging and health are discussed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)33-49
Number of pages17
JournalArchives of Gerontology and Geriatrics
Volume3
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1984

Keywords

  • health
  • longitudinal studies
  • minority status
  • sex
  • socioeconomic status

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Health(social science)
  • Aging
  • Gerontology
  • Geriatrics and Gerontology

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