LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF MEXICAN AMERICAN ELDERLY HEALTH

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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.