Inequality and Disability among Older Adults: Paths to Differential Trajectories

该项目将研究人口，健康，社会经济，行为，心理，支持，结构， 以及预测黑人和白人残疾和死亡率差异的背景因素， 美国最弱势种族群体（黑人）中按性别分列的独特因果途径 States.这个项目从四个方面扩展了对黑人/白色人晚年残疾差异的研究：（1） 将使用多种先进的定量弹道分析方法来检验不同的弹道 并解开对残疾时间与随时间积累的影响，重新估计模型 使用独特的方法来处理选择性死亡率;（2）流行病学的理论贡献， 女权主义者和其他文献将被用来探讨种族之间和种族内的性别差异; (3)背景变量的作用，除了个人层面的因素，在因果路径的残疾 将研究黑人和白人的死亡率;（4）黑人/白色人活跃预期寿命的20年趋势 将使用贝叶斯生命表估计方法进行检查，该方法允许直接纳入协变量 从而能够直接检验独立效应的假设。我的培训和工作经历 为我提供了老龄人口学和社会学方面的实质性和方法论知识基础 问题.一个K99将允许我扩大这个基础，包括多学科的更好的理解 消除种族和性别健康差距的框架和办法，并参加正规培训 在贝叶斯统计和多层次模型的上下文效应的测试。ROO阶段将 请允许我所需的时间，作为年轻的教师，在我的指导下完成我的研究计划。 导师和顾问，并提交一份关于残疾和死亡率种族差异的R 01提案， 生命历程尽管美国老年人的健康状况总体上有所改善，但种族/民族健康状况仍在改善。 差距继续扩大。消除健康方面的差异，包括残疾方面的差异， 健康人2010年和延长积极的生活是首要的使命的国家老龄问题研究所。 了解导致残疾差异的因果途径将为研究和政策提供信息 实现这些目标。

This project will examine demographic, health, socioeconomic, behavioral, psychological, support, structural, and contextual factors predicting disability and mortality differentials for blacks and whites in addition to the unique causal pathways by gender among the most disadvantaged racial group (blacks) in the United States. This project extends the study of black/white disability differentials in later life in four ways: (1) mutiple types of advanced quantitative trajectory analyses will be used to examine differential trajectories and disentangle effects on the timing of disability versus accumulation over time and reestimate models using unique approaches to handle selective mortality; (2) theoretical contributions from epidemiologic, feminist, and other literatures will be drawn on to explore differentials across race and within race by gender; (3) the role of contextual variables in addition to individual-level factors in the causal pathways to disability and mortality for blacks and whites will be examined; (4) 20-year trends in black/ white active life expectancy will be examined using Bayesian methods for life table estimation that allow the direct inclusion of covarites and thus enable direct tests of hypotheses for independent effects. My training and work experiences have provided me a substantive and methodological knowledge base in demography of aging and sociological issues. A K99 would allow me to expand this base to include a greater understanding of multidisciplinary frameworks and approaches to health disparities by race and gender and to participate in formalized training in Bayesian statistics and multilevel modeling for the testing of contextual effects. The ROO phase would allow me the time needed, as young faculty, to complete my research plan under the guidance of my mentors and consultants, and submit an R01 proposal on racial disparities in disability and mortality over the life course. Although the health of older Americans has been improving on the whole, racial/ethinic health disparities continue to grow. Eliminating health disparities, including differentials in disability, is a major focus of Healthy People 2010 and extending active life is primary to the mission of the National Institute on Aging. Understanding the causal pathways leading to disability differentials would inform research and policy addressing these goals.