IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/popdev/v34y2008i3p457-482.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Comparison of Biological Risk Factors in Two Populations: The United States and Japan

Author

Listed:
  • Eileen M. Crimmins
  • Sarinnapha Vasunilashorn
  • Jung Ki Kim
  • Aaron Hagedorn
  • Yasuhiko Saito

Abstract

Life expectancy is higher in Japan than in the United States. We compared the prevalence of clinically recognized risk factors in the two countries to explore the possibility that differences in these likely precursors to disease and death are linked to the paths to higher mortality for Americans. We found that American men and women have higher levels of total biological risk than the Japanese, particularly for risk factors included in the metabolic syndrome. A significant difference between the two countries is the higher prevalence of overweight among Americans. On the other hand, measured blood pressure appears more favorable among Americans. A larger proportion of Americans use prescription drugs, which results in lowered levels of measured biological risk. There are large differences in the prevalence of a number of risk factors between American and Japanese women less than age 40; this could mean that Americans develop biological risk earlier in life or that the differences are growing larger in more recent cohorts.

Suggested Citation

  • Eileen M. Crimmins & Sarinnapha Vasunilashorn & Jung Ki Kim & Aaron Hagedorn & Yasuhiko Saito, 2008. "A Comparison of Biological Risk Factors in Two Populations: The United States and Japan," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 34(3), pages 457-482, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:popdev:v:34:y:2008:i:3:p:457-482
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1728-4457.2008.00232.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2008.00232.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2008.00232.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David A. Wise & Naohiro Yashiro, 2006. "Health Care Issues in the United States and Japan," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number wise06-1, March.
    2. David A. Wise, 2006. "Introduction to "Health Care Issues in the United States and Japan"," NBER Chapters, in: Health Care Issues in the United States and Japan, pages 1-16, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Seeman, Teresa E. & Crimmins, Eileen & Huang, Mei-Hua & Singer, Burton & Bucur, Alexander & Gruenewald, Tara & Berkman, Lisa F. & Reuben, David B., 2004. "Cumulative biological risk and socio-economic differences in mortality: MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(10), pages 1985-1997, May.
    4. Seeman, Teresa & Glei, Dana & Goldman, Noreen & Weinstein, Maxine & Singer, Burt & Lin, Yu-Hsuan, 2004. "Social relationships and allostatic load in Taiwanese elderly and near elderly," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 59(11), pages 2245-2257, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Heller, Peter S., 2016. "The challenge of an aged and shrinking population: Lessons to be drawn from Japan’s experience," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 8(C), pages 85-93.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Seeman, Melvin & Stein Merkin, Sharon & Karlamangla, Arun & Koretz, Brandon & Seeman, Teresa, 2014. "Social status and biological dysregulation: The “status syndrome” and allostatic load," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 143-151.
    2. Shawna Beese & Julie Postma & Janessa M. Graves, 2022. "Allostatic Load Measurement: A Systematic Review of Reviews, Database Inventory, and Considerations for Neighborhood Research," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-23, December.
    3. Ali Reza Kalantari & Mohammad Jafari Sirizi & Mohammad Hossein Mehrolhassani & Reza Dehnavieh, 2019. "Challenges of implementation: Strategic purchasing in Iran Health Insurance Organization," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 875-884, January.
    4. Lipowicz, Anna & Szklarska, Alicja & Mitas, Andrzej W., 2016. "Biological costs of economic transition: Stress levels during the transition from communism to capitalism in Poland," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 90-99.
    5. Keiichi Shimatani & Mayuko T. Komada & Jun Sato, 2021. "Impact of the Changes in the Frequency of Social Participation on All-Cause Mortality in Japanese Older Adults: A Nationwide Longitudinal Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-13, December.
    6. Szanton, Sarah L. & Thorpe, Roland J. & Whitfield, Keith, 2010. "Life-course financial strain and health in African-Americans," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 259-265, July.
    7. Davillas, Apostolos & Pudney, Stephen, 2020. "Biomarkers, disability and health care demand," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    8. Gruenewald, Tara L. & Karlamangla, Arun S. & Hu, Perry & Stein-Merkin, Sharon & Crandall, Carolyn & Koretz, Brandon & Seeman, Teresa E., 2012. "History of socioeconomic disadvantage and allostatic load in later life," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 75-83.
    9. Goldman, Noreen & Turra, Cassio M. & Rosero-Bixby, Luis & Weir, David & Crimmins, Eileen, 2011. "Do biological measures mediate the relationship between education and health: A comparative study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 307-315, January.
    10. Margie E Lachman & Stefan Agrigoroaei, 2010. "Promoting Functional Health in Midlife and Old Age: Long-Term Protective Effects of Control Beliefs, Social Support, and Physical Exercise," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(10), pages 1-9, October.
    11. Davillas, Apostolos & Pudney, Stephen, 2020. "Using biomarkers to predict healthcare costs: Evidence from a UK household panel," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    12. Davillas, Apostolos & Jones, Andrew M, 2020. "Ex ante inequality of opportunity in health, decomposition and distributional analysis of biomarkers," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    13. Davillas, Apostolos & Pudney, Stephen, 2020. "Biomarkers as precursors of disability," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    14. Vincenzo Carrieri & Apostolos Davillas & Andrew M. Jones, 2020. "A latent class approach to inequity in health using biomarker data," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(7), pages 808-826, July.
    15. J. Mark Ramseyer, 2009. "Universal Health Insurance and the Effect of Cost Containment on Mortality Rates: Strokes and Heart Attacks in Japan," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6(2), pages 309-342, June.
    16. Hannes Kröger & Rasmus Hoffmann, 2018. "The association between CVD-related biomarkers and mortality in the Health and Retirement Survey," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 38(62), pages 1933-2002.
    17. Vie, Tina Løkke & Hufthammer, Karl Ove & Holmen, Turid Lingaas & Meland, Eivind & Breidablik, Hans Johan, 2014. "Is self-rated health a stable and predictive factor for allostatic load in early adulthood? Findings from the Nord Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT)," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 1-9.
    18. Seeman, Teresa & Merkin, Sharon S. & Crimmins, Eileen & Koretz, Brandon & Charette, Susan & Karlamangla, Arun, 2008. "Education, income and ethnic differences in cumulative biological risk profiles in a national sample of US adults: NHANES III (1988-1994)," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 72-87, January.
    19. Turner, R. Jay & Thomas, Courtney S. & Brown, Tyson H., 2016. "Childhood adversity and adult health: Evaluating intervening mechanisms," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 114-124.
    20. Robin Lumsdaine & Stephanie Vermeer, 2015. "Retirement Timing of Women and the Role of Care Responsibilities for Grandchildren," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(2), pages 433-454, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:popdev:v:34:y:2008:i:3:p:457-482. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0098-7921 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.