MARITAL STATUS, HEALTH AND MORTALITY AMONG THE ELDERLY

这个项目的目标是调查健康和死亡率的差异。 根据美国老年人口的婚姻状况。许多研究都有 确定已婚人士享有更好的健康和更低的死亡率 风险比同龄未婚人士高。人们对此知之甚少 这些差异的来源。拟议分析的具体目标 是使用1984至1990年的老龄化纵向研究(LSOA)来确定 这些婚姻状况的影响在很大程度上是由 在较小的年龄运行，或者这些过程是否也在以后运行 生命；调查健康和死亡率的程度 老年人的差异可以用社会因素的差异来解释。 和未婚人士之间的经济环境；以及 探讨性别差异对婚姻状况的影响。 LSOA中包含的数据非常适合研究婚姻状况 老年人在健康和死亡率方面的差异。一种特殊的 这项调查的好处是收集了反复测量的婚姻状况 地位、经济地位、社会支持和身体机能 提供关于关系的更完整和准确的知识 社会和经济因素与健康和死亡率之间的关系 老年人。LSOA，通过其与国民健康访谈的链接 关于年龄的调查补充资料，包含有关基线的详细信息 无法从以前使用的数据源获得的运行状况 学习。对基线健康状态的控制对于确定 继续影响老年人健康的属性。 这项拟议的研究结果将对以下两个领域的研究人员具有重要意义 社会科学和政策界。老年人所占比例 独居的人一直在稳步增加，老年人的比例 据预测，未婚人口在过去几年大幅增加。 下一个50年。最令人关注的是对提供 护理，特别是对老年人的长期护理。干预措施以提供 或鼓励支持居于社区的长者作为一种 可以推广制度化的替代方案，用于金融或 出于人道主义原因。研究表明，社会支持可以起到 增加老年人的寿命和健康可以提供额外的 这些干预措施有令人信服的理由。制定适当的 政策需要确定社会和环境的具体方面 影响老年人健康和长寿的经济环境。

The goal of this project is to investigate health and mortality differences by marital status among the elderly U.S. population. Numerous studies have established that married persons enjoy better health and lower mortality risks than do unmarried persons of equal age. Much less is known about the sources of these differentials. The specific aims of the proposed analysis are to use the 1984 to 1990 Longitudinal Study of Aging (LSOA) to determine whether these marital status effects result largely from processes which operate at younger ages or whether these processes also operate in later life; to investigate the extent to which the health and mortality differences at the older ages can be explained by differences in the social and economic environment between married and unmarried persons; and to explore gender variation in marital status effects. Data contained in the LSOA are well-suited to the study of marital status differentials in health and mortality among the elderly. A particular advantage of this survey is the collection of repeated measures of marital status, economic status, social support, and physical functioning that will provide more complete and accurate knowledge about the relationships between social and economic factors and health and mortality among the elderly. The LSOA, through its link to the National Health Interview Survey Supplement on Aging, contains detailed information about baseline health status that is unavailable from the data sources used in previous studies. Controls for baseline health status are essential for identifying attributes that continue to influence health at older ages. The results of the proposed study will be important both to researchers in the social sciences and to the policy community. The proportion of elderly who live alone has been steadily increasing and the proportion of older persons who are unmarried is projected to increase substantially over the next 50 years. Of primary concern are implications for the provision of care, especially long-term care for the elderly. Interventions to provide or encourage support for elderly persons living in the community as an alternative to institutionalization may be promoted for financial or humanitarian reasons. Research indicating that social support can act to increase longevity and health among the elderly provides additional compelling rationales for these interventions. Formulation of appropriate policies requires identification of the specific aspects of the social and economic environment that affect the health and longevity of older persons.