@article {13087, title = {Black and white differences in subjective survival expectations: An evaluation of competing mechanisms.}, journal = {SSM Popul Health}, volume = {21}, year = {2023}, pages = {101339}, abstract = {

While black-white inequality in longevity is well documented in the United States, little is known about how individuals from different race/ethnic groups form their own personal survival expectations. Prior research has found that despite having higher mortality, blacks on average report higher survival expectations relative to whites. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, we examined racial differences in subjective survival expectations across birth cohorts and provide explanatory mechanisms. We find that blacks-men in particular-were overly optimistic about their survival, but this effect had waned with successive birth cohorts. Furthermore, whereas subjective survival expectations and actual survival were correlated among white men, among black men the most optimistic fared worst. Blacks and whites differed not only in their response patterns, but also in how they weighed the different factors (socioeconomic, psychosocial, health, parental longevity) associated with expected survival. Importantly, those who estimated their survival probability with certainty had positive psychosocial characteristics, irrespective of race, but only whites had better health. These findings underscore the importance of group differences in subjective survival expectations as another potential form of inequality. Racial differences in how long individual expect to live may account for differences in social and economic behavior and outcomes, irrespective of actual longevity differentials.

}, keywords = {black, mechanisms, Survival expectation, White}, issn = {2352-8273}, doi = {10.1016/j.ssmph.2023.101339}, author = {Bernstein, Shayna Fae and Sasson, Isaac} } @article {11421, title = {Increasing Education-Based Disparities in Healthy Life Expectancy Among U.S. Non-Hispanic Whites, 2000-2010.}, journal = {The Journals of Gerontology, Series B}, volume = {76}, year = {2021}, pages = {319-329}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To examine changes in Healthy Life Expectancy (HLE) against the backdrop of rising mortality among less-educated white Americans during the first decade of the twenty-first century.

METHODS: This study documented changes in HLE by education among U.S. non-Hispanic whites, using data from the U.S. Multiple Cause of Death public-use files, the Integrated Public Use Microdata Sample (IPUMS) of the 2000 Census and the 2010 American Community Survey, and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Changes in HLE were decomposed into contributions from: (i) change in age-specific mortality rates; and (ii) change in disability prevalence, measured via Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL).

RESULTS: Between 2000 and 2010, HLE significantly decreased for white men and women with less than 12 years of schooling. In contrast, HLE increased among college-educated white men and women. Declines or stagnation in HLE among less-educated whites reflected increases in disability prevalence over the study period, whereas improvements among the college educated reflected decreases in both age-specific mortality rates and disability prevalence at older ages.

DISCUSSION: Differences in HLE between education groups increased among non-Hispanic whites from 2000 to 2010. In fact, education-based differences in HLE were larger than differences in total life expectancy. Thus, the lives of less-educated whites were not only shorter, on average, compared with their college-educated counterparts, but they were also more burdened with disability.

}, keywords = {Disability, Education, Healthy life expectancy, Mortality}, issn = {1758-5368}, doi = {10.1093/geronb/gbz145}, author = {Cantu, Phillip A and Connor M Sheehan and Sasson, Isaac and Mark D Hayward} } @article {9893, title = {The case for monitoring life-span inequality}, journal = {Science}, volume = {362}, year = {2018}, pages = {1002-1004}, keywords = {Inequality, Policy, Survey Methodology}, issn = {0036-8075}, doi = {10.1126/science.aau5811}, url = {http://www.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aau5811https://syndication.highwire.org/content/doi/10.1126/science.aau5811}, author = {van Raalte, Alyson A. and Sasson, Isaac and Martikainen, Pekka} } @article {9591, title = {Educational Differences in the Prevalence of Dementia and Life Expectancy with Dementia: Changes from 2000 to 2010.}, journal = {Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences \& Social Sciences}, volume = {73}, year = {2018}, pages = {S20-S28}, abstract = {

Objectives: This article provides the first estimates of educational differences in age-specific prevalence, and changes in prevalence over time, of dementia by education levels in the United States. It also provides information on life expectancy, and changes in life expectancy, with dementia and cognitively healthy life for educational groups.

Method: Data on cognition from the 2000 and 2010 Health and Retirement Study are used to classify respondents as having dementia, cognitive impairment without dementia (CIND), or being cognitively intact. Vital statistics data are used to estimate life tables for education groups and the Sullivan method is used to estimate life expectancy by cognitive state.

Results: People with more education have lower prevalence of dementia, more years of cognitively healthy life, and fewer years with dementia. Years spent in good cognition increased for most sex-education groups and, conversely, years spent with dementia decreased for some. Mortality reduction was the most important factor in increasing cognitively healthy life. Change in the distribution of educational attainment has played a major role in the reduction of life with dementia in the overall population.

Discussion: Differences in the burden of cognitive loss by education point to the significant cost of low social status both to individuals and to society.

}, keywords = {Dementia, Education, Mortality}, issn = {1758-5368}, doi = {10.1093/geronb/gbx135}, author = {Eileen M. Crimmins and Saito, Yasuhiko and Jung K Kim and Yuan S Zhang and Sasson, Isaac and Mark D Hayward} } @article {8071, title = {Widowhood and depression: new light on gender differences, selection, and psychological adjustment}, journal = {The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences}, volume = {69}, year = {2014}, pages = {135}, publisher = {69}, abstract = {Objectives. To document short- and long-term trajectories of depressive symptoms following widowhood and to test whether these trajectories vary by gender and anticipatory spousal loss. Method. Eight waves of prospective panel data from the Health and Retirement Study, over a 14-year period, are used to evaluate gender differences in depressive symptoms following widowhood in late midlife. Short-term trajectories are modeled using a linear regression of change in Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) score on duration of widowhood. Long-term trajectories are modeled using a mixed-effects hierarchical linear model of CES-D scores over time. We find no gender differences in bereavement effects on depressive symptoms in either short or long term, net of widowhood duration. When spousal death is anticipated, both men and women return to their prewidowhood levels of depressive symptoms within 24 months of becoming widowed. Across marital groups, the continuously married are better off compared with the widowed even prior to spousal loss, whereas early, long-term widowhood is associated with worse outcomes compared with late widowhood. Discussion. Although men and women do not differ in trajectories of depressive symptoms following widowhood, given similar circumstances, women are distinctly disadvantaged in that they are more likely to become widowed and under less favorable conditions.}, keywords = {Demographics, Health Conditions and Status, Net Worth and Assets, Other}, author = {Sasson, Isaac and Debra Umberson} }