IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wpa/wuwphe/0403002.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Socioeconomic Status and Racial and Ethnic Differences in Functional Status Associated with Chronic Diseases

Author

Listed:
  • Raynard S. Kington

    (RAND)

  • James P. Smith

    (RAND)

Abstract

Objectives. This study examined the relationships between wealth and income and selected racial and ethnic differences in health. Methods. Cross-sectional data on a national sample of 9744 men and women aged 51 through 61 from the 1992 Health and Retirement Survey were analyzed to examine the association between socioeconomic status and racial and ethnic differences in functional status among those with hypertension, diabetes, a heart condition, and arthritis. Results. Compared with Whites, African Americans report higher rates of hypertension, diabetes, and arthritis, while Hispanics report higher rates of hypertension and diabetes and a lower rate of heart conditions. Accounting for differences in education, income, and wealth had little effect on these prevalence differences. In general, among those with chronic diseases, African Americans and Hispanics reported worse function than Whites. This disadvantage was eliminated in every case by controlling for socioeconomic status. Conclusions. While socioeconomic status, including wealth, accounts for much of the difference in functional status associated with these chronic diseases, it plays a relatively small role in explaining differences in the prevalence of chronic disease, possibly reflecting different causal pathways.

Suggested Citation

  • Raynard S. Kington & James P. Smith, 2004. "Socioeconomic Status and Racial and Ethnic Differences in Functional Status Associated with Chronic Diseases," HEW 0403002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwphe:0403002
    Note: Type of Document - pdf; pages: 6. American Journal of Public Health, Volume 87, Number 5, May 1977, pp. 805-810
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de/econ-wp/hew/papers/0403/0403002.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Behrman, Jere R. & Sickles, Robin & Taubman, Paul & Yazbeck, Abdo, 1991. "Black-white mortality inequalities," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1-2), pages 183-203, October.
    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. Emily D Williams & Therese Tillin & Peter Whincup & Nita G Forouhi & Nishi Chaturvedi, 2012. "Ethnic Differences in Disability Prevalence and Their Determinants Studied over a 20-Year Period: A Cohort Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(9), pages 1-9, September.
    2. McGranahan, David & Parker, Timothy, 2021. "The Opioid Epidemic: A Geography in Two Phases," Economic Research Report 327197, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    3. Bowen, Mary Elizabeth, 2009. "Childhood socioeconomic status and racial differences in disability: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study (1998-2006)," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 433-441, August.
    4. Drakopoulos, Stavros A., 2010. "Economic Policies, Socieconomic Factors and Overall Health: A Short Review," MPRA Paper 21553, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Haas, Steven & Rohlfsen, Leah, 2010. "Life course determinants of racial and ethnic disparities in functional health trajectories," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 240-250, January.
    6. Gerda G Fillenbaum & Sergio L Blay & Carl F Pieper & Katherine E King & Sergio B Andreoli & Fábio L Gastal, 2013. "The Association of Health and Income in the Elderly: Experience from a Southern State of Brazil," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(9), pages 1-1, September.
    7. S.A. Drakopoulos & E. Lakioti & I. Theodossiou, 2011. "Childhood socioeconomic deprivation and later adulthood health," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 38(1), pages 23-38, January.
    8. Hajat, A. & Kaufman, J.S. & Rose, K.M. & Siddiqi, A. & Thomas, J.C., 2010. "Do the wealthy have a health advantage? Cardiovascular disease risk factors and wealth," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(11), pages 1935-1942, December.
    9. Thorpe Jr., Roland James & Kasper, Judith D. & Szanton, Sarah L. & Frick, Kevin D. & Fried, Linda P. & Simonsick, Eleanor M., 2008. "Relationship of race and poverty to lower extremity function and decline: Findings from the women's health and aging study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(4), pages 811-821, February.
    10. Drakopoulos, Stavros A. & Lakioti, E & Theodossiou, Ioannis, 2008. "The Effect of Childhood Economic Deprivation on Physical and Psychological health Status," MPRA Paper 10438, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Paul Lee & James P. Smith & Raynard S. Kington, 2004. "The Associations Between Self-Rated Vision and Hearing and Functional Status in Middle Age," HEW 0402002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Goldman, Dana & Smith, James P., 2011. "The increasing value of education to health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(10), pages 1728-1737, May.
    13. Fothergill, Kate E. & Ensminger, Margaret E. & Robertson, Judy & Green, Kerry M. & Thorpe, Roland J. & Juon, Hee-Soon, 2011. "Effects of social integration on health: A prospective study of community engagement among African American women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 291-298, January.
    14. Alvin Headen & Kenneth Manton & Max Woodbury, 2004. "Co-morbidity and black and white disparities in health and functional status," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 31(4), pages 9-33, June.
    15. 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.

    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. Grant Johnston, 2004. "Healthy, wealthy and wise? A review of the wider benefits of education," Treasury Working Paper Series 04/04, New Zealand Treasury.
    2. Nevzer Stacey, 1998. "Social Benefits of Education," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 559(1), pages 54-63, September.
    3. James P. Smith & Raynard Kington, 2004. "Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Health in Late Life," HEW 0403001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Joseph Graves, 2010. "Biological V. Social Definitions of Race: Implications for Modern Biomedical Research," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 37(1), pages 43-60, March.
    5. Leigh, J. Paul & Dhir, Rachna, 1997. "Schooling and frailty among seniors," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 45-57, February.
    6. Mira Hidajat & Mark Hayward & Yasuhiko Saito, 2007. "Indonesia’s social capacity for population health: the educational gap in active life expectancy," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 26(2), pages 219-234, April.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I - Health, Education, and Welfare

    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:wpa:wuwphe:0403002. 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: EconWPA (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de .

    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.