IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp16004.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Trends in Gender and Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Physical Disability and Social Support among U.S. Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment Living Alone, 2000–2018

Author

Listed:
  • Chen, Shanquan

    (University of Cambridge)

  • Zhang, Huanyu

    (Chinese University of Hong Kong)

  • Underwood, Benjamin R.

    (University of Cambridge)

  • Wang, Dan

    (Ontario Tech University)

  • Chen, Xi

    (Yale University)

  • Cardinal, Rudolf N.

    (University of Cambridge)

Abstract

Informal care is a primary source of support for older adults with cognitive impairment but is less available to those who live alone. We leverage the U.S. Health and Retirement Survey 2000-2018 to examine trends in the prevalence of physical disability and social support among older adults with cognitive impairment living alone, and their gender and racial/ethnic disparities. Information on physical disability and social support was collected through measures of basic and instrumental activities of daily living (BADLs, IADLs). Logistic and Poisson regression were adopted to estimate linear trends over time for binary and integer outcomes, respectively. Among those who reported BADL/IADL disability, the proportion unsupported for BADLs decreased significantly over time, while the proportion unsupported for IADLs increased significantly over time. Among those who received IADL support, the number of unmet IADL support needs increased significantly over time. Over time, Black respondents had a relatively increasing trend of being BADL-unsupported, and Hispanic and Black respondents had a relatively increasing trend in the number of unmet BADL needs, compared to the corresponding trends in White respondents. Our findings may prompt customized interventions to reduce disparities and unmet support needs.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Shanquan & Zhang, Huanyu & Underwood, Benjamin R. & Wang, Dan & Chen, Xi & Cardinal, Rudolf N., 2023. "Trends in Gender and Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Physical Disability and Social Support among U.S. Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment Living Alone, 2000–2018," IZA Discussion Papers 16004, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp16004.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    More about this item

    Keywords

    racial/ethnic disparity; physical disability; social support; gender disparity; cognitive impairment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:iza:izadps:dp16004. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    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.