IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v367y2025ics0277953625000619.html

Unequal but widespread despairs: Social inequalities and self-rated health trends in the United States in 1972–2018

Author

Listed:
  • Ye, Yiwan
  • Shu, Xiaoling

Abstract

Past studies show rising mortality and morbidity among middle-aged white Americans since the 21st century. This research analyses trends in declining self-rated health (SRH) across demographic groups, focusing on shifts in SRH inequalities by gender, race, and socioeconomic status (SES). It sheds light on declining health trends in the United States and deepens our understanding of health inequalities and their dynamics in high-income countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Ye, Yiwan & Shu, Xiaoling, 2025. "Unequal but widespread despairs: Social inequalities and self-rated health trends in the United States in 1972–2018," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 367(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:367:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625000619
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117732
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953625000619
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117732?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. Andrew Bell & Kelvyn Jones, 2015. "Bayesian informative priors with Yang and Land’s hierarchical age–period–cohort model," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 255-266, January.
    2. Yiwan Ye & Xiaoling Shu, 2022. "Lonely in a Crowd: Cohort Size and Happiness in the United Kingdom," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 2235-2257, June.
    3. Isabel Aguilar-Palacio & Ana Isabel Gil-Lacruz & Raquel Sánchez-Recio & Mª José Rabanaque, 2018. "Self-rated health in Europe and its determinants: Does generation matter?," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 63(2), pages 223-232, March.
    4. Jason L. Cummings, 2023. "Entangled Inequalities: U.S. Trends in Self-Rated Health at the Intersection of Gender and Race, 1972–2018," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 169(3), pages 759-774, October.
    5. Stein, E.M. & Gennuso, K.P. & Ugboaja, D.C. & Remington, P.L., 2017. "The epidemic of despair among white americans: Trends in the leading causes of premature death, 1999-2015," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 107(10), pages 1541-1547.
    6. Emma Zang & Jessica West & Nathan Kim & Christina Pao, 2021. "U.S. regional differences in physical distancing: Evaluating racial and socioeconomic divides during the COVID-19 pandemic," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(11), pages 1-17, November.
    7. Barr, Ben & Kinderman, Peter & Whitehead, Margaret, 2015. "Trends in mental health inequalities in England during a period of recession, austerity and welfare reform 2004 to 2013," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 324-331.
    8. Liying Luo, 2013. "Paradigm Shift in Age-Period-Cohort Analysis: A Response to Yang and Land, O’Brien, Held and Riebler, and Fienberg," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(6), pages 1985-1988, December.
    9. repec:plo:pone00:0084933 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. McCartney, Gerry & McMaster, Robert & Popham, Frank & Dundas, Ruth & Walsh, David, 2022. "Is austerity a cause of slower improvements in mortality in high-income countries? A panel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    11. Yang Yang, 2008. "Trends in U.S. adult chronic disease mortality, 1960–1999: age, period, and cohort variations," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 45(2), pages 387-416, May.
    12. Su, Yu-Sung & Lien, Donald & Yao, Yuling, 2022. "Economic growth and happiness in China: A Bayesian multilevel age-period-cohort analysis based on the CGSS data 2005–2015," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 191-205.
    13. Anne Case & Angua Deaton, 2015. "Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century," Working Papers 15078.full.pdf, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Research Program in Development Studies..
    14. Sergey Timonin & Inna Danilova & Evgeny Andreev & Vladimir M. Shkolnikov, 2017. "Recent Mortality Trend Reversal in Russia: Are Regions Following the Same Tempo?," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 33(5), pages 733-763, December.
    15. Dasgupta, N. & Beletsky, L. & Ciccarone, D., 2018. "Opioid Crisis: No Easy Fix to Its Social and Economic Determinants," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 108(2), pages 182-186.
    16. repec:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2017.303941_0 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Huang, X. & Keyes, K.M. & Li, G., 2018. "Increasing prescription opioid and heroin overdose mortality in the United States, 1999-2014: An age-period-cohort analysis," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 108(1), pages 131-136.
    18. Ethan Fosse & Christopher Winship, 2019. "Bounding Analyses of Age-Period-Cohort Effects," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(5), pages 1975-2004, October.
    19. Anne Case & Angus Deaton, 2021. "Life expectancy in adulthood is falling for those without a BA degree, but as educational gaps have widened, racial gaps have narrowed," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 118(11), pages 2024777118-, March.
    20. Andrew Bell & Kelvyn Jones, 2015. "Bayesian informative priors with Yang and Land’s hierarchical age–period–cohort model," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 255-266, January.
    21. Hui Zheng & Jonathan Dirlam & Paola Echave, 2021. "Divergent Trends in the Effects of Early Life Factors on Adult Health," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(5), pages 1119-1148, October.
    22. Yulia Marchenko, 2022. "Bayesian multilevel modeling," London Stata Conference 2022 04, Stata Users Group.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Shannon M. Monnat, 2022. "Demographic and Geographic Variation in Fatal Drug Overdoses in the United States, 1999–2020," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 703(1), pages 50-78, September.
    2. Glei, Dana A. & Stokes, Andrew & Weinstein, Maxine, 2020. "Changes in mental health, pain, and drug misuse since the mid-1990s: Is there a link?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    3. Miller, Charlotte E. & Vasan, Ramachandran S., 2021. "The southern rural health and mortality penalty: A review of regional health inequities in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    4. Hui Zheng & Jonathan Dirlam & Paola Echave, 2021. "Divergent Trends in the Effects of Early Life Factors on Adult Health," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(5), pages 1119-1148, October.
    5. Deiana, Claudio & Giua, Ludovica & Nistico, Roberto, 2019. "The Economics behind the Epidemic: Afghan Opium Price and Prescription Opioids in the US," IZA Discussion Papers 12872, IZA Network @ LISER.
    6. Pinghui Wu, 2022. "Wage Inequality and the Rise in Labor Force Exit: The Case of US Prime-Age Men," Working Papers 22-16, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    7. Ting-Syuan Lin, 2025. "Regional Difference in Changing Son Preference Attitudes in Taiwan: An Age–Period–Cohort-Interaction Analysis, 2001–2021," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 44(3), pages 1-29, June.
    8. Boslett, Andrew & Hill, Elaine, 2022. "Mortality during resource booms and busts," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    9. Perry, Seth W & Allison, Stephen & Bastiampillai, Tarun & Wong, Ma-Li & Licinio, Julio & Sharfstein, Steven S. & Wilcox, Holly C., 2019. "Rising US Suicides: Achieving Health Equity," OSF Preprints m5q64, Center for Open Science.
    10. Shannon M. Monnat, 2020. "Trends in U.S. Working-Age non-Hispanic White Mortality: Rural–Urban and Within-Rural Differences," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 39(5), pages 805-834, October.
    11. Seto, Christopher, 2022. "Saving Grace? Religious ecology and deaths of despair," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    12. Lleras-Muney, Adriana & Price, Joseph & Yue, Dahai, 2022. "The association between educational attainment and longevity using individual-level data from the 1940 census," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    13. Elisabet Beseran & Juan M. Pericàs & Lucinda Cash-Gibson & Meritxell Ventura-Cots & Keshia M. Pollack Porter & Joan Benach, 2022. "Deaths of Despair: A Scoping Review on the Social Determinants of Drug Overdose, Alcohol-Related Liver Disease and Suicide," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-18, September.
    14. Daniele, Gianmarco & Le Moglie, Marco & Masera, Federico, 2023. "Pains, guns and moves: The effect of the U.S. opioid epidemic on Mexican migration," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    15. Steven A. Haas & Katsuya Oi & Zhangjun Zhou, 2017. "The Life Course, Cohort Dynamics, and International Differences in Aging Trajectories," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(6), pages 2043-2071, December.
    16. Cotti, Chad D. & Gordanier, John M. & Ozturk, Orgul D., 2020. "The relationship of opioid prescriptions and the educational performance of children," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    17. David G. Blanchflower & Donn. L. Feir, 2023. "Native Americans’ experience of chronic distress in the USA," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(2), pages 885-909, April.
    18. Peter Congdon, 2020. "Geographical Aspects of Recent Trends in Drug-Related Deaths, with a Focus on Intra-National Contextual Variation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-18, November.
    19. José Manuel Aburto & Alyson van Raalte, 2018. "Lifespan Dispersion in Times of Life Expectancy Fluctuation: The Case of Central and Eastern Europe," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(6), pages 2071-2096, December.
    20. Angus Deaton, 2022. "The great divide: education, despair, and death," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 57(4), pages 161-168, October.

    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:367:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625000619. 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.