SOCIOCULTURAL INFLUENCES ON AFRICAN AMERICAN LONGEVITY

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The proposed research will examine the hypothesis that cultural beliefs and practices of African American elderly contribute to their health and longevity. The research will focus on four cultural factors: I) positive views of aging; 2) religiosity; 3) extended support networks; and 4) folk medicine. These beliefs and practices are more prevalent among African American than White elderly and seem to increase with age. The proposed study will focus on how these four factors interact and whether they influence certain health factors associated with longevity. The first nine months of the project will consist of research training related to geriatric health research, medical anthropology and African American studies. Then two longitudinal studies of African American elderly, one qualitative and one quantitative, will begin. In the qualitative study 15 African American elderly informants will be visited and observed regularly over two years. In the quantitative study, information about health functioning and specific cultural beliefs and practices will be gathered three times over two years from 80 African American elderly. It is expected that the qualitative and quantitative research will inform each other. The proposed research aims to formulate a model of aging that considers some of the indigenous resources of African Americans and gather data for a study, which would be conducted after the post-doctoral fellowship, that examines whether cultural factors contribute to the racial crossover phenomenon.