Socioeconomic inequalities in health after age 50: Are health risk behaviors to blame?

Social Science and Medicine

Volumn 101, Issue , 2014, Pages 52-60

  Shaw, Benjamin A ^a   McGeever, Kelly ^a   Vasquez, Elizabeth ^a   Agahi, Neda ^b   Fors, Stefan ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY AT ALBANY   (United States)

^b STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY   (Sweden)

Author keywords

Aging; Disability; Mortality; Obesity; Physical activity; Smoking; Socioeconomic status

Indexed keywords

AGING; DISABILITY; MORTALITY; OBESITY; PHYSICAL ACTIVITY; SMOKING; SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS;

AGE DISTRIBUTION; AGED; ALCOHOLISM; DISABLED PERSONS; FEMALE; HEALTH BEHAVIOR; HEALTH STATUS DISPARITIES; HEALTH SURVEYS; HUMANS; MALE; MIDDLE AGED; MORTALITY; OBESITY; RISK-TAKING; SEDENTARY LIFESTYLE; SEX DISTRIBUTION; SMOKING; SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS; UNITED STATES;

EID: 84894069090     PISSN: 02779536     EISSN: 18735347     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.10.040     Document Type: Article

References (36)

1. Berrigan D., Dodd K., Troiano R.P., Krebs-Smith S.M., Barbash R.B. Patterns of health behavior in U.S. adults. Preventive Medicine 2003, 36:615-623.
2. Blaxter M. Health and lifestyles 1990, Routledge, London.
3. Card D., Dobkin C., Meastas N. The impact of nearly universal insurance coverage on health care utilization: evidence from medicare. American Economic Review 2008, 98:2242-2258.
4. Crystal S., Shea D., Krishnaswami S. Educational attainment, occupational history, and stratification: determinants of later-life economic outcomes. Journal of Gerontology 1992, 47:S213-S221.
5. Escobedo L.G., Peddicord J.P. Smoking prevalence in US birth cohorts: the influence of gender and education. American Journal of Public Health 1996, 86:231-236.
6. Ferraro K.F., Shippee T.P., Schafer M.H. Cumulative inequality theory for research on aging and the life course. Handbook of theories of aging 2009, 413-434. Springer, New York. V.L. Bengtson, M. Silverstein, N.M. Putney, D. Gans (Eds.).
7. Fors S., Agahi N., Shaw B.A. Paying the price? The impact of smoking and obesity on health inequalities in later life. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 2012, 41:134-141.
8. Fors S., Lennartsson C., Lundberg O. Health inequalities among older adults in Sweden 1991-2002. The European Journal of Public Health 2008, 18:138-143.
9. Gorman B.K., Read J.G. Gender disparities in adult health: an examination of three measures of morbidity. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 2006, 47:95-110.
10. Health and Retirement Study, ([RAND HRS Data File (v.L)]) public use dataset. Produced and distributed by the University of Michigan with funding from the National Institute on Aging (grant number NIA U01AG009740). Ann Arbor, MI, (, Accessed 2012). http://hrsonline.isr.umich.edu.
11. Hoffmann R. Socioeconomic inequalities in old-age mortality: a comparison of Denmark and the USA. Social Science & Medicine 2011, 72:1986-1992.
12. Huisman M., Read S., Towriss C.A., Deeg D.J.H., Grundy E. Socioeconomic inequalities in mortality rates in old age in the World Health Organization Europe Region. Epidemiologic Reviews 2013, 35:84-97.
13. Husten C.G., Shelton D.M., Chrismon J.H., Lin Y.C., Mowery P., Powell F.A. Cigarette smoking and smoking cessation among older adults: United States, 1965-94. Tobacco Control 1997, 6:175-180.
14. Jacobs D.R., Adachi H., Mulder I., Kromhout D., Menotti A., Nissinen A., et al. Cigarette smoking and mortality risk: twenty-five-year follow-up of the seven countries study. Archives of Internal Medicine 1999, 159:733-740.
15. Janssen I., Bacon E. Effect of current and midlife obesity status on mortality risk in the elderly. Obesity 2008, 16:2504-2509.
16. von dem Knesebeck O., Lüschen G., Cockerham W.C., Siegrist J. Socioeconomic status and health among the aged in the United States and Germany: A comparative cross-sectional study. Social Science & Medicine 2003, 57:1643-1652.
17. Koskinen S., Martelin T. Why are socioeconomic mortality differences smaller among women than men?. Social Science & Medicine 1994, 38:1385-1396.
18. Lang I.A., Llewellyn D.J., Alexander K., Melzer D. Obesity, physical function, and mortality in older adults. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2008, 56:1474-1478.
19. Lantz P.M., Golberstein E., House J.S., Morenoff J.D. Socioeconomic and behavioral risk factors for mortality in a national 19-year prospective study of U.S. adults. Social Science & Medicine 2010, 70:1558-1566.
20. Lantz P.M., Lynch J.W., House J.S., Lepkowski J.M., Mero R.P., Musick M.A., et al. Socioeconomic disparities in health change in a longitudinal study of US adults: the role of health-risk behaviors. Social Science & Medicine 2001, 53:29-40.
21. Lee I.-M., Paffenbarger R.S. Associations of light, moderate, and vigorous intensity physical activity with longevity: the Harvard Alumni Health Study. American Journal of Epidemiology 2000, 151:293-299.
22. Mackenbach J.P. The persistence of health inequalities in modern welfare states: the explanation of a paradox. Social Science & Medicine 2012, 75:761-769.
23. Matthews R.J., Smith L.K., Hancock R.M., Jagger C., Spiers N.A. Socioeconomic factors associated with the onset of disability in older age: a longitudinal study of people aged 75 years and over. Social Science & Medicine 2005, 61:1567-1575.
24. Mokdad A.H., Marks J.S., Stroup D.F., Gerberding J.L. Actual causes of death in the United States, 2000. Journal of the American Medical Association 2004, 291:1238-1245.
25. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (n.d.). Older adults. Retrieved January 29, 2013 from http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/special-populations-co-occurring-disorders/older-adults.
26. Oreopoulos A., Kalantar-Zadeh K., Sharma A.M., Fonarow G.C. The obesity paradox in the elderly: potential mechanisms and clinical implications. Clinics in Geriatric Medicine 2009, 25:643-659.
27. Pampel F.C., Krueger P.M., Denney J.T. Socioeconomic disparities in health behaviors. Annual Review of Sociology 2010, 36:349-370.
28. Papalia D.E., Camp C.J., Feldman R.D. Adult development and aging 1996, McGraw-Hill Company, New York City: NY.
29. Petersen C., Grønbæk M., Helge J., Thygesen L., Schnohr P., Tolstrup J. Changes in physical activity in leisure time and the risk of myocardial infarction, ischemic heart disease, and all-cause mortality. European Journal of Epidemiology 2012, 27:91-99.
30. Ross C.E., Mirowsky J. The interaction of personal and parental education on health. Social Science & Medicine 2011, 72:591-599.
31. Shaw B.A., Agahi N., Krause N. Are changes in financial strain associated with changes in alcohol use and smoking among older adults?. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs 2011, 72:917-925.
32. Shaw B.A., Spokane L.S. Examining the association between education level and physical activity changes during early old age. Journal of Aging and Health 2008, 20:767-787.
33. Stringhini S., Dugravot A., Shipley M., Goldberg M., Zins M., Kivimäki M., et al. Health behaviours, socioeconomic status, and mortality: further analyses of the British Whitehall II and the French GAZEL prospective cohorts. PLoS Medicine 2011, 8:1-12.
34. Stringhini S., Sabia S., Shipley M., Brunner E., Nabi H., Kivimaki M., et al. Association of socioeconomic position with health behaviors and mortality. Journal of the American Medical Association 2010, 303:1159-1166.
35. Taylor D.H., Hasselblad V., Henley S.J., Thun M.J., Sloan F.A. Benefits of smoking cessation for longevity. American Journal of Public Health 2002, 92:990-996.
36. Wray L.A., Alwin D.F., McCammon R.J. Social status and risky healthbehaviors: results from the health and retirement study. The Journals ofGerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 2005, 60:S85-S92.