Funded Research
Racial Burden of Chronic Disease
Source: NIA
Active: 09/30/02 - 8/31/06
Investigator(s):
Leif Jensen
Mark Hayward
Both the length of life and the quality of life lived are stratified along race/ethnic lines in the United States. Blacks can expect to live fewer years than whites and Hispanics, and they can anticipate more years of life with a disabling health problem. In stark contrast, Hispanics can expect to live remarkably few years with a disabling health condition. These race/ethnic differences in years with and without disability point to the importance of investigating disparities in chronic diseases -- the health problems that underlie disability and death. Drawing on the Health and Retirement Survey, the proposed study will take advantage of a 12-year observation period to follow persons as they experience the onset of fatal chronic conditions, develop co-morbid conditions, and ultimately die from major causes. We will use this information to develop demographic models of chronic disease experience quantifying the scope of race/ethnic disparities and the lifecycle processes through which disparities arise. The demographic models, in turn, lay a much needed foundation for developing analytic models incorporating socioeconomic conditions, lifestyle behaviors, health care use, and biomedical factors in accounting for race/ethnic differences in chronic disease processes.
Specifically, the aims of this project are to:
1) Develop demographic models of race/ethnic disparities in health allowing us to quantify:
- How race/ethnic differences in chronic disease experience give rise to disparities in the burden of chronic disease (i.e., the years lived with and without disease).
- Whether sex differences in chronic disease experience are consistent across race/ethnic groups, and similarly, whether the educational gradient in chronic disease is consistent across race/ethnic groups.
2) Develop multivariate analytic models of race/ethnic differences in chronic disease processes (i.e., disease incidence, co-morbidity, and mortality), focusing on the role of socioeconomic resources from childhood through old age. Key questions are:
- To what degree are race/ethnic differences in chronic disease morbidity and mortality rooted in the race/ethnic stratification of socioeconomic resources?
- To what degree do socioeconomic resources equally benefit the health of each of the major race/ethnic groups?
The proposed study represents a substantial step forward in quantifying disparities in chronic disease experience and in examining a broad range of SES mechanisms influencing the morbidity and mortality experiences of older blacks, whites, and Hispanics.
