A Sociocultural Approach to Understanding Racial Disparities in Late-Life Physical Function
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Start Date
25-6-2008 3:45 PM
End Date
25-6-2008 4:45 PM
Keywords:
Health Disparate, Minority and Vulnerable Populations, Healthcare Disparities, Black or African American, Race Factors
Description
Self-rated health (SRH) is a significant predictor of mortality, and African Americans consistently report poorer SRH than Whites even after controlling for a number of sociodemographic and self-reported health correlates. The health pessimism hypothesis (Ferraro, 1993) suggests that African American elders are more pessimistic about health than Whites and therefore tend to report lower SRH at similar levels of objective health status. Our goal was to test this hypothesis by determining whether racial differences in SRH persisted at similar levels of objective physical functioning while adjusting for known predictors of SRH. Data were drawn from 2,729 men and women (41% African American sample, mean age= 74 years) in the Health, Aging, and Body Composition study. We used hierarchical logistic regression to examine the association between race and SRH while adjusting for demographic, physical health, and psychosocial factors. To test the health pessimism hypothesis directly, these analyses were repeated for participants with comparable scores on an objective, multidimensional physical performance battery. We found that the association between race and SRH remained independent of physical and psychosocial health variables, with Whites being 3.3 times more likely than African Americans to report favorable SRH. After stratifying by objective functional status, White participants in the lowest tertile of functioning were more than twice as likely as African Americans to report favorable SRH. This association was significant at each level of functioning and strongest among the highest functioning participants, where Whites were 5.5 times more likely than African Americans to report favorable SRH. These results support the hypothesis of greater health pessimism among African Americans and suggest that cultural differences may exist in what factors contribute to SRH and the extent to which these factors influence SRH assessments. Our study expanded on previous work by including objective physical functioning in multidimensional models to deconstruct race variations in the SRH of older adults.
Recommended Citation
Spencer, Mindi Ph.D, "A Sociocultural Approach to Understanding Racial Disparities in Late-Life Physical Function" (2008). Disparities in Health in America Workshop: Celebrating Scholar Entrepreneurs Working Towards Social Justice. 7.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/dhaw/2008/kelloggscholars/7
Short Bio, Abstract, and Presentation Slide Deck
A Sociocultural Approach to Understanding Racial Disparities in Late-Life Physical Function
Self-rated health (SRH) is a significant predictor of mortality, and African Americans consistently report poorer SRH than Whites even after controlling for a number of sociodemographic and self-reported health correlates. The health pessimism hypothesis (Ferraro, 1993) suggests that African American elders are more pessimistic about health than Whites and therefore tend to report lower SRH at similar levels of objective health status. Our goal was to test this hypothesis by determining whether racial differences in SRH persisted at similar levels of objective physical functioning while adjusting for known predictors of SRH. Data were drawn from 2,729 men and women (41% African American sample, mean age= 74 years) in the Health, Aging, and Body Composition study. We used hierarchical logistic regression to examine the association between race and SRH while adjusting for demographic, physical health, and psychosocial factors. To test the health pessimism hypothesis directly, these analyses were repeated for participants with comparable scores on an objective, multidimensional physical performance battery. We found that the association between race and SRH remained independent of physical and psychosocial health variables, with Whites being 3.3 times more likely than African Americans to report favorable SRH. After stratifying by objective functional status, White participants in the lowest tertile of functioning were more than twice as likely as African Americans to report favorable SRH. This association was significant at each level of functioning and strongest among the highest functioning participants, where Whites were 5.5 times more likely than African Americans to report favorable SRH. These results support the hypothesis of greater health pessimism among African Americans and suggest that cultural differences may exist in what factors contribute to SRH and the extent to which these factors influence SRH assessments. Our study expanded on previous work by including objective physical functioning in multidimensional models to deconstruct race variations in the SRH of older adults.
