Deaths, Disparities, and Cumulative (Dis)Advantage: How Social Inequities Produce an Impairment Paradox in Later Life.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Research on health across the life course consistently documents widening racial and socioeconomic disparities from childhood through adulthood, followed by stabilization or convergence in later life. This pattern appears to contradict expectations set by cumulative (dis)advantage (CAD) theory. Informed by the punctuated equilibrium perspective, we examine the relationship between midlife health and subsequent health change and mortality and consider the impact of earlier socioeconomic exposures on observed disparities.

Methods

Using the Health and Retirement Study, we characterize the functional impairment histories of a nationally representative sample of 8464 older adults between 1994 and 2016. We employ nonparametric and discrete outcome multinomial logistic r

SUBMITTER: Jackson H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8824561 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature