How does health interface with living arrangements?

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 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The United Nations has identified living arrangements of older persons and possible government responses as the most pressing issue of population aging. In particular, living arrangements are closely linked with health, health care, and long-term care in later life. The proposed research seeks to extend current understanding of the dynamic linkages between health and living arrangements among older Americans. Its specific aims include: (a) to describe transitions in living arrangements among older Americans by constructing multistate life tables with an emphasis on proximate residence, (b) to depict living arrangements among older Americans as trajectories consisting of multiple transitions over some 20 years, (c) to evaluate how trajectories of living arrangements evolve as a function of health status and major life events within the context of social stratification and across racial/ethnic groups, (d) to analyze living arrangements in old age from the perspective of adult children, and (e) to undertake parallel analyses described in aims a through c for childless older Americans. Data will come from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), which tracks a national sample of Americans 51 years of age or older since 1998. We will analyze living arrangement transitions and trajectories by using life tables and multi-level models. Findings from this research will provide stronger dynamic and cultural underpinnings to our understanding of living arrangements in old age. They will inform public policies designed to strengthen family-based support and home and community-based long-term care for older people.