IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v108y2014icp81-88.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cross race comparisons between SES health gradients among African–American and white women at mid-life

Author

Listed:
  • Reagan, Patricia B.
  • Salsberry, Pamela J.

Abstract

This study explored how multiple indicators of socioeconomic status (SES) inform understanding of race differences in the magnitude of health gains associated with higher SES. The study sample, 1268 African–American women and 2066 white women, was drawn from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth 1979. The outcome was the Physical Components Summary from the SF-12 assessed at age 40. Ordinary least squares regressions using education, income and net worth fully interacted with race were conducted. Single measure gradients tended to be steeper for whites than African–Americans, partly because “sheepskin” effects of high school and college graduation were higher for whites and low income and low net worth whites had worse health than comparable African–Americans. Conditioning on multiple measures of SES eliminated race disparities in health benefits of education and net worth, but not income. A discussion of current public policies that affect race disparities in levels of education, income and net wealth is provided.

Suggested Citation

  • Reagan, Patricia B. & Salsberry, Pamela J., 2014. "Cross race comparisons between SES health gradients among African–American and white women at mid-life," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 81-88.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:108:y:2014:i:c:p:81-88
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.02.028
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953614001324
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.02.028?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stuber, Jennifer & Meyer, Ilan & Link, Bruce, 2008. "Stigma, prejudice, discrimination and health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 351-357, August.
    2. Duncan, G.J. & Daly, M.C. & McDonogh, P. & Williams, D.R., 2002. "Erratum: Optimal indicators of socioeconomic status for health research (American Journal of Public Health (2002) 92 (1151-1157))," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 92(8), pages 1212-1212.
    3. James J. Heckman & Paul A. LaFontaine, 2010. "The American High School Graduation Rate: Trends and Levels," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(2), pages 244-262, May.
    4. Kroenke, C.H. & Kubzansky, L.D. & Adler, N. & Kawachi, I., 2008. "Prospective change in health-related quality of life and subsequent mortality among middle-aged and older women," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 98(11), pages 2085-2091.
    5. Janet Currie, 2009. "Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise: Socioeconomic Status, Poor Health in Childhood, and Human Capital Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 87-122, March.
    6. Cubbin, C. & Pollack, C. & Flaherty, B. & Hayward, M. & Sania, A. & Vallone, D. & Braveman, P., 2011. "Assessing alternative measures of wealth in health research," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 101(5), pages 939-947.
    7. Maury Gittleman & Edward N. Wolff, 2004. "Racial Differences in Patterns of Wealth Accumulation," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(1).
    8. Pamela Herd & Brian Goesling & James S. House, "undated". "Socioeconomic Position and Health: The Differential Effects of Education versus Income on the Onset versus Progression of Health Problems," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 441d34cf576545a8b8bd05ca7, Mathematica Policy Research.
    9. Warner, David F. & Brown, Tyson H., 2011. "Understanding how race/ethnicity and gender define age-trajectories of disability: An intersectionality approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(8), pages 1236-1248, April.
    10. Braveman, P.A. & Cubbin, C. & Egerter, S. & Williams, D.R. & Pamuk, E., 2010. "Socioeconomic disparities in health in the united States: What the patterns tell us," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 100(S1), pages 186-196.
    11. Read, Jen'nan Ghazal & Gorman, Bridget K., 2006. "Gender inequalities in US adult health: The interplay of race and ethnicity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(5), pages 1045-1065, March.
    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. Leah Zilversmit Pao & Emily W. Harville & Jeffrey K. Wickliffe & Arti Shankar & Pierre Buekens, 2019. "The Cumulative Risk of Chemical and Nonchemical Exposures on Birth Outcomes in Healthy Women: The Fetal Growth Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-16, October.

    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. Eleonora Trappolini & Cristina Giudici, 2021. "Gendering health differences between nonmigrants and migrants by duration of stay in Italy," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 45(7), pages 221-258.
    2. James J. Heckman, 2008. "Schools, Skills, And Synapses," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 46(3), pages 289-324, July.
    3. Barr, Ashley Brooke, 2015. "Family socioeconomic status, family health, and changes in students' math achievement across high school: A mediational model," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 27-34.
    4. Brady, David & Guerra, Christian & Kohler, Ulrich & Link, Bruce, 2021. "The Long Arm of Prospective Childhood Income for Mature Adult Health in the U.S," SocArXiv gwkma, Center for Open Science.
    5. MAZEIKAITE Gintare & O'DONOGHUE Cathal & SOLOGON Denisa, 2017. "Decomposing health inequality in the EU," LISER Working Paper Series 2017-02, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    6. McDonough, Peggy & Worts, Diana & Sacker, Amanda, 2010. "Socioeconomic inequalities in health dynamics: A comparison of Britain and the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 251-260, January.
    7. Andersson, Matthew A. & Link, Bruce G., 2024. "Friends, neighbors, country, and respect: Status ladders and health behaviors in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 361(C).
    8. Lorenti, Angelo & Dudel, Christian & Hale, Jo Mhairi & Myrskylä, Mikko, 2020. "Working and disability expectancies at older ages: the role of childhood circumstances and education," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 106194, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Gintare Mazeikaite & Cathal O’Donoghue & Denisa M. Sologon, 2021. "What Drives Cross-Country Health Inequality in the EU? Unpacking the Role of Socio-economic Factors," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 117-155, May.
    10. Joseph Wolfe, 2015. "The Effects of Socioeconomic Status on Child and Adolescent Physical Health: An Organization and Systematic Comparison of Measures," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 123(1), pages 39-58, August.
    11. Diane Coffey & Ashwini Deshpande & Jeffrey Hammer & Dean Spears, 2019. "Local Social Inequality, Economic Inequality, and Disparities in Child Height in India," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(4), pages 1427-1452, August.
    12. Christelis, Dimitris & Dobrescu, Loretti I. & Motta, Alberto, 2020. "Early life conditions and financial risk-taking in older age," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    13. Vanessa Tan & Cynthia Chen & Reshma Aziz Merchant, 2022. "Association of social determinants of health with frailty, cognitive impairment, and self-rated health among older adults," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(11), pages 1-18, November.
    14. Huong Thu Le & Ha Trong Nguyen, 2018. "The evolution of the gender test score gap through seventh grade: new insights from Australia using unconditional quantile regression and decomposition," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 7(1), pages 1-42, December.
    15. Ainhoa Aparicio, 2014. "Newborn Health and the Business Cycle," CINCH Working Paper Series 1402, Universitaet Duisburg-Essen, Competent in Competition and Health.
    16. Amin, Vikesh & Lundborg, Petter & Rooth, Dan-Olof, 2015. "The intergenerational transmission of schooling: Are mothers really less important than fathers?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 100-117.
    17. Leobardo Diosdado & Matthew Jaramillo & Eugene Bland & Christopher Wertheim, 2024. "Coastal Real Estate Vibes: An Analysis of the Association Between Coastal Residential Ownership and the Resident Occupant’s Risk Tolerance," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-12, November.
    18. Daniel Demant & Oscar Oviedo-Trespalacios & Julie-Anne Carroll & Jason A. Ferris & Larissa Maier & Monica J. Barratt & Adam R. Winstock, 2018. "Do people with intersecting identities report more high-risk alcohol use and lifetime substance use?," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 63(5), pages 621-630, June.
    19. Verónica Amarante & Marco Manacorda & Edward Miguel & Andrea Vigorito, 2016. "Do Cash Transfers Improve Birth Outcomes? Evidence from Matched Vital Statistics, Program, and Social Security Data," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 8(2), pages 1-43, May.
    20. John Gibson & Trinh Le & Steven Stillman, 2007. "What explains the wealth gap between immigrants and the New Zealand born?," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(2), pages 131-162.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:eee:socmed:v:108:y:2014:i:c:p:81-88. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    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.