AGING IMMIGRANTS, NATIVITY AND DECLINING HEALTH

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The United States is becoming increasingly a multicultural nation, and this fact has important implications for public policy dealing with the health and medical care needs of minority and immigrant populations. Although burgeoning evidence documents the economic correlates of racial and ethnic differentials in health and illness for individuals across the life course, fewer studies have assessed the impact of nativity, as well as proximate risk factors, on the longitudinal health and disability status of mature adult Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites. Using three waves of the Health and Retirement Survey (HRS), this study examines whether diminished health (e.g., self-assessed health and declines in activity of daily living functioning) is comparable for pre- retirement age Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites. We also explore whether indicators of cultural change and social class interact to influence health outcomes of 1,106 immigrants in the HRS, especially those of Mexican origin. In general, we hypothesize that differences in illness profiles among immigrants depend upon the interaction of cultural and socioeconomic factors that foreign-born individuals undergo to move into and stay in the economic mainstream of American society, and that these interactions may affect the health of lower-income groups more negatively than higher-income groups. The study will shed light on the nature of the aging process in specific cultural and social contexts, and will inform social policy by developing public and private sector initiatives that address ways to improve both the quantity and quality of life for Hispanic immigrants and their families.