HEALTH INEQUALITIES ACROSS THE LIFE SPAN

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议的会议将探讨生命历程和健康不平等的发展前景。 这次会议将由宾夕法尼亚州老年学中心主办，并由宾夕法尼亚州人类发展和家庭研究中心和社会科学研究联合会共同赞助。会议的共同主席将是伦纳德一世。Pearlin，马里兰州大学社会学研究生教授，和Steven H.宾夕法尼亚州立大学人类发展教授、老年学中心助理主任扎里特说。目的是召开一次议程建设会议，利用现有的经验研究结果，审查影响健康差距的从童年到成年的生命历程条件，并制定探索这些问题的概念、理论和方法框架。拟议方案的一个特点是检查现有的纵向数据，以解决生命过程中健康差异的前因和累积影响。旨在阐明人们的社会和经济地位与他们的健康之间的联系的研究往往集中在同时期的健康行为和生活方式的倾向。目前的研究在很大程度上缺少的是对早期生物-心理-社会环境在人的中晚期健康状况中所起作用的理解。 在生命过程中的任何一点观察到的健康差异可能有在早期出现的前因。也就是说，先前的事件或条件可能具有延迟和/或累积效应，这些效应在生命过程的后期最清楚地反映在健康和健康行为中。我们认为，如果除其他办法外，还从生命历程的角度来看待与身份地点和健康有关的条件，我们对健康差距的基础的理解就会得到提高。拟议的为期两天的会议将从几个角度探讨这些问题，包括研究健康差距对生命过程影响的概念和理论模型，以及种族、性别和经济地位等具体因素的作用。主要论文之后将进行正式讨论，以扩展和阐明演示文稿。会议记录将发表在一份特别期刊上。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed conference will explore life course and developmental perspectives on health inequalities. The conference, which is proposed for June, 2004, will be organized by the Penn State Gerontology Center and co-sponsored by the Center for Human Development and Family Research in Diverse Contexts and the Social Science Research Consortium of Penn State. Co-chairs of the conference will be Leonard I. Pearlin, Graduate Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, and Steven H. Zarit, Professor of Human Development and Assistant Director of the Gerontology Center at Penn State University. The aim is for an agenda building conference that will use empirical findings, when available, to examine the life course conditions from childhood through adulthood that influence health disparities, as well as developing conceptual, theoretical and methodological frameworks for exploring these issues. A hallmark of the proposed program will be examination of available longitudinal data to address antecedents and cumulative effects of health disparities over the life course. Research aimed at illuminating the links between people's social and economic statuses and their health has tended to focus on contemporaneous health behaviors and life style dispositions. What is largely missing from the research at the present time is an understanding of the part played by earlier bio-psycho-social circumstances in the health status of people at mid- and late-life. Health disparities that are observed at any point in the life course may have antecedents that surfaced at earlier points. That is, antecedent events or conditions might have delayed and/or cumulative effects that become most clearly reflected in health and health behavior at later times in the life course. We believe that our understanding of the underpinnings of health disparities would be advanced if, in addition to other approaches, the conditions that are linked to both status locations and health were viewed within a life course context. The proposed two-day conference will explore these issues from several perspectives, including conceptual and theoretical models for examining life course effects of disparities on health, as well as the role of specific factors such as race, gender and economic status. Major papers will be followed by formal discussions to extend and illuminate the presentations. Proceedings will be published in a special journal issue.