Financial Strain, Religious Involvement, and Life Satisfaction Among Older Mexican Americans.
Res Aging. 2011 Jul 1;33(4):403-425
Authors: Krause N, Elena
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to see if financial strain affects the religious involvement and life satisfaction of older Mexican Americans. In the process, an effort was made to explore the factors that promote financial strain in this ethnic group, including immigration status and English language use. The data come from a nationwide survey of older Mexican Americans. Support was found for the following core relationships in the study model: (1) older adults who were born in Mexico will have less schooling; (2) less education will be associated with less frequent use of English; (3) less frequent use of English will be associated with greater financial strain; (4) greater financial strain leads to less formal involvement in the church; (5) older people who are less involved in the church will have a diminished sense of religious meaning; and (6) older adults with a lower sense of religious meaning will be less satisfied with life.
PMID: 21666829 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
The educational gradient of U.S. adult mortality became steeper between 1960 and the mid 1980s, but whether it continued to steepen is less clear given a dearth of attention to these trends since that time. This study provides new evidence on trends in the education-mortality gradient from 1986 to 2006 by race, gender, and age among non-Hispanic whites and blacks using data from the 2010 release of the National Health Interview Survey Linked Mortality File. Results show that, for white and black men, the gradient steepened among older ages because declines in mortality risk across education levels were greater among the higher educated. The gradient steepened among white women, and to a much lesser and only marginally significant extent among black women, largely because mortality risk decreased among the college-educated but increased among women with less than a high school degree. Greater returns to higher education and compositional changes within educational strata likely contributed to the trends.
PMID: 21897495 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Does Gender Moderate Factors Associated with Whether Spouses Are the Sole Providers of IADL Care to Their Partners?
Res Aging. 2010 Jul 1;32(4):499-526
Authors: Feld S, Dunkle RE, Schroepfer T, Shen HW
We explored whether gender moderated the influence of other factors on solo spousal caregiving. The subsample (N = 452) from the AHEAD study included elderly care recipients (CRs) receiving IADL assistance and their spouses. Logistic regression modeled the likelihood of solo spousal IADL care. Gender moderation was tested by product terms between CRs’ gender and measures of partners’ health, potential helpers, and sociodemographic characteristics. As numbers of CRs’ IADLs and couples’ proximate daughters increased, wives less often received care solely from their husbands, but husbands’ receipt of care from their wives was unaffected. Age differences between spouses and CRs affected solo spousal caregiving to wives and husbands in opposite ways. Regardless of gender, CRs’ number of ADL limitations and spouses with IADL or ADL limitations reduced the likelihood of solo spouse care. Identifying circumstances influencing solo spouse caregiving differently among couples with frail wives and husbands facilitates gender sensitive services.
PMID: 21818168 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Age-Related Changes in Biomarkers: Longitudinal Data from a Population-Based Sample.
Res Aging. 2011 May 1;33(3):312-326
Authors: Glei DA, Goldman N, Lin YH, Weinstein M
Identifying how biological parameters change with age can provide insights into the physiological determinants of disease, and ultimately, death. Most prior studies of age-related change in biomarkers are based on cross-sectional data, small or selective samples, or a limited number of biomarkers. We use data from a nationally-representative longitudinal sample of 639 Taiwanese aged 54 and older in 2000 to assess changes over a six-year period in a wide range of biomarkers. Markers that increased most with age were glycoslyated hemoglobin, interleukin-6, and norepinephrine. Markers that decreased most with age were diastolic blood pressure and creatinine clearance. For example, glycoslyated hemoglobin increased by 8-13%, on average, over this six-year period. Several standard clinical risk factors exhibited little evidence of age-related change. Further research is needed to determine whether the observed variation between individuals in biomarker changes represents differences in underlying physiological function that are predictive of future health and survival.
PMID: 21666867 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
The Effect of Productive Activities on Depressive Symptoms Among Older Adults With Dual Sensory Loss.
Res Aging. 2011 May;33(3):234-255
Authors: McDonnall MC
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability of three productive activities (paid employment, volunteer work, and informal helping) to mitigate the negative effects of dual sensory loss (DSL) on depressive symptoms among older adults. Multilevel modeling was used to analyze longitudinal data from the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study. The sample consisted of 2,688 persons: 1,380 who developed DSL during the study and 1,308 who did not. Although participation in each of the productive activities was associated with fewer depressive symptoms for older adults with DSL, volunteering was also the only variable that moderated the relationship between DSL and depressive symptoms. Persons with a DSL who volunteered exhibited a larger decrease in depressive symptoms compared to persons without sensory loss who volunteered. A volunteer intervention for older adults with DSL may be a viable option to help reduce depression in this population.
PMID: 21686087 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Urban Neighborhoods and Depressive Symptoms in Late Middle Age.
Res Aging. 2011 Jan 1;33(1):28-50
Authors: Wight RG, Ko MJ, Aneshensel CS
This study examines associations between multiple urban neighborhood characteristics (socioeconomic disadvantage, affluence, and racial/ethnic composition) and depressive symptoms among late middle aged persons and compares findings to those previously obtained for persons age 70 years and older. Survey data are from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a U.S. national probability sample of noninstitutionalized persons aged 51 to 61 years in 1992. Neighborhoods are 1990 U.S. census tracts. Hierarchical linear regression is used to estimate multilevel models. Depressive symptoms vary significantly across urban neighborhoods among late middle age persons. Neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage is significantly associated with depressive symptoms, net of both individual-level sociodemographic and health variables. However, this association is contingent upon individual-level wealth in that persons with low wealth in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods report the most depressive symptoms. Unlike findings for older adults for whom neighborhood effects appear to be entirely compositional in nature, neighborhood context matters to subgroups of late middle age adults.
PMID: 21572903 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
THE ROLE OF PERCEIVED RELIGIOUS SIMILARITY IN THE QUALITY OF MOTHER-CHILD RELATIONS IN LATER-LIFE: DIFFERENCES WITHIN FAMILIES AND BETWEEN RACES.
Res Aging. 2011 Jan 1;33(1):3-27
Authors: Sechrist J, Suitor JJ, Vargas N, Pillemer K
Despite evidence of the importance of value similarity in predicting parent-adult child relations, little attention has been given to the unique role of religious similarity. Using 1,407 dyads nested within 390 families, we examine whether religious similarity predicts the quality of mother-child relations in later life, and whether the strength of this association differs by race. Consistent with our hypotheses, religious similarity was found to be an important factor in predicting both closeness and conflict, particularly in Black families. These findings suggest that it may be important to give greater attention to religion when studying patterns of interaction and support in the later years, especially among Black families.
PMID: 21221411 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Later-life Employment Preferences and Outcomes: The Role of Mid-life Work Experiences.
Res Aging. 2010 Jul 1;32(4):419-466
Authors: Raymo JM, Warren JR, Sweeney MM, Hauser RM, Ho JH
In this paper, we evaluate relationships between mid-life work experiences and the realization of preferences for full-time employment, part-time employment, and complete retirement at age 63-64. Using rich data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, we demonstrate that the likelihood of achieving one’s preferred employment status is related to earlier work experiences including employment stability in mid-life and self-employment, part-time employment, and private pension coverage across the life course. Despite large gender differences in work experiences across the life course, relationships between earlier work experiences and the likelihood of realizing later-life employment preferences are generally similar for men and women. We also find that these relationships are only partially mediated by economic and employment circumstances in late mid-life, suggesting the need for further evaluation of the cumulative pathways linking mid-life work experiences to the realization of later-life employment preferences.
PMID: 20824202 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
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