LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF MEXICAN AMERICAN ELDERLY HEALTH

该申请寻求资金进行大型纵向研究， 至少3,000名65岁的墨西哥裔美国人的代表性样本， 居住在美国西南部。 拟议的研究目标 在生成关于身体和精神健康的数据方面， 通过对老年人的其他大规模流行病学研究获得，大多数 特别是EPSE。 因此，我们希望能够估计关键的身体疾病的患病率。 健康状况、心理健康状况和功能障碍 在墨西哥裔美国老年人中， 非裔美国人和盎格鲁美国老人。 我们还计划调查 身体和心理健康的预测因素，无论是横截面和 纵向（两年以上）。 研究的预测因素包括，正式和 非正式社会支持，心理资源，社会人口学 因素，健康行为，迁移史，文化适应，压力 生活环境和获得医疗保健的机会。 除了预测 随着时间的推移，我们计划调查 死亡率、健康行为的变化和社交网络的变化 和生活安排。 样本将采用面积概率抽样程序抽取， 代表西南部五个州的墨西哥裔美国老人。 受试者将在家中接受采访。 此外，受过训练的 采访者将获得有限的人体测量，血液 压力和基于表现的身体功能评估。 三所大学的联合努力是第一次大规模的 研究墨西哥裔美国老年人的健康状况， 为了产生必要的知识，以解决这一日益增长的 人民的卫生保健需要。

This application seeks funds to conduct a large longitudinal study of a representative sample of at least 3,000 Mexican Americans aged 65 and over residing in the Southwestern United States. The proposed study aims at generating data on physical and mental health comparable to those obtained by other large-scale epidemiologic studies of the elderly, most notably the EPESE. We hope, thus, to estimate prevalence of key physical health conditions, mental health conditions, and functional impairments in Mexican American elderly and compare this prevalence with that in African American and Anglo American elderly. We also plan to investigate predictors of physical and mental health, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally (over two years). Predictors examined include, formal and informal social supports, psychological resources, sociodemographic factors, health behaviors, migration history, acculturation, stressful life circumstances, and access to health care. In addition to predicting health and mental health over time, we plan to investigate predictors of mortality, changes in health behaviors, and changes in social networks and living arrangements. The sample will be drawn using area probability sampling procedures to represent Mexican American elderly in the five southwestern states. Subjects will be interviewed in their homes. In addition, trained interviewers will obtain limited anthropometric measures, blood pressures, and performance based assessments of physical functioning. The proposed joint effort by three universities is the first large-scale study of the health of Mexican American elderly and will go a long way towards generating the knowledge necessary for addressing this growing population's health care needs.