@article {13450, title = {Quantifying the contribution of work characteristics to educational disparities in health-induced work limitations.}, journal = {J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Aug 17}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To quantify how poor health and inhospitable working conditions each contribute to educational disparities in work disability in mid-life and old age.

METHODS: We used the Health and Retirement Study (2006-2016) to examine educational disparities in reporting "any impairment or health problem that limits the kind or amount of paid work" in ages 51-80.

RESULTS: We found disparities to be profound and persistent over time. Blinder-Oaxaca three-fold decomposition revealed that distributions of income and employer insurance made the largest contribution to explaining different rates of work limitations among respondents with versus without high school degrees, followed by work characteristics (physical job demands, insufficient hours) and health conditions (diabetes, lung disease). Comparing respondents with high school versus college degrees, distributions of health conditions mattered most (high blood pressure, lung disease, heart disease, stroke), followed by health behaviors (smoking, drinking). Health-induced work limitations are often used as a measure of health, but we found that work characteristics explained 57\% of the disadvantage of those without a high school degree and 44\% of the disadvantage of high school compared to college graduates.

DISCUSSION: Therefore, work environments appear to play an important role in educational disparities in mid-to-late-life disability.

}, issn = {1758-5368}, doi = {10.1093/geronb/gbad112}, author = {Abrams, Leah R and Berkman, Lisa F} } @article {13402, title = {The Quiet Struggles Of Those Living Alone With Memory Loss}, year = {2023}, publisher = {Forbes}, keywords = {Cognition, Living Alone, memory loss}, url = {https://www.forbes.com/sites/howardgleckman/2023/07/18/the-quiet-struggles-of-those-living-alone-with-memory-loss/?sh=784b3d4d43ce}, author = {Gleckman, Howard} } @article {12011, title = {The quality of relationships with adult children and depressive symptoms among grandparents.}, journal = {Aging and Mental Health}, year = {2022}, abstract = {

The present study aims to identify distinct types of relationships between grandparents and their adult children, measure the associations between these relationship types and depressive symptoms among grandparents, and determine whether these associations vary by grandparent status.This study uses data from a sample of 1,196 grandparents age 51 and older from the 2014 Health and Retirement Study. Latent class analysis (LCA) is applied and identifies types of grandparent-adult children relationships. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression models are used to estimate the association between relationship types and depressive symptoms by grandparent status. LCA identified four grandparent-adult children relationship types: amicable, ambivalent, detached, and disharmonious. Custodial and co-parenting grandparents were most likely to report having an ambivalent relationship with their adult children. Among co-parenting and custodial grandparents, disharmonious relationships were associated with more depressive symptoms. Interventions are suggested to improve emotional relationships with adult children and dyadic family relationships among grandparent families.

}, keywords = {Depressive symptoms, Grandparenting, intergenerational relationships}, issn = {1364-6915}, doi = {10.1080/13607863.2021.1998349}, author = {Heejung Jang and Rauktis, Mary E and Tang, Fengyan} } @article {12380, title = {Quality of survey responses at older ages predicts cognitive decline and mortality risk}, journal = {Innovation in Aging}, volume = {6}, year = {2022}, pages = {igac027}, abstract = {Background and Objectives It is widely recognized that survey satisficing, inattentive, or careless responding in questionnaires reduces the quality of self-report data. In this study, we propose that such low-quality responding (LQR) can carry substantive meaning at older ages. Completing questionnaires is a cognitively demanding task and LQR among older adults may reflect early signals of cognitive deficits and pathological aging. We hypothesized that older people displaying greater LQR would show faster cognitive decline and greater mortality risk. Research Design and Methods We analyzed data from 9,288 adults 65 years or older in the Health and Retirement Study. Indicators of LQR were derived from participants{\textquoteright} response patterns in 102 psychosocial questionnaire items administered in 2006-2008. Latent growth models examined whether LQR predicted initial status and change in cognitive functioning, assessed with the modified Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status, over the subsequent 10 years. Discrete-time survival models examined whether LQR was associated with mortality risk over the 10 years. We also examined evidence for indirect (mediated) effects in which LQR predicts mortality via cognitive trajectories. Results After adjusting for age, gender, race, marital status, education, health conditions, smoking status, physical activity, and depressive symptoms, greater LQR was cross-sectionally associated with poorer cognitive functioning, and prospectively associated with faster cognitive decline over the follow-up period. Furthermore, greater LQR was associated with increased mortality risk during follow-up, and this effect was partially accounted for by the associations between LQR and cognitive functioning. Discussion and Implications Self-report questionnaires are not formally designed as cognitive tasks but this study shows that LQR indicators derived from self-report measures provide objective, performance-based information about individuals{\textquoteright} cognitive functioning and survival. Self-report surveys are ubiquitous in social science, and indicators of LQR may be of broad relevance as predictors of cognitive and health trajectories in older people.}, keywords = {Aging, Careless responding, Cognitive Ability, self-report, Survey satisficing}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igac027}, author = {Stefan Schneider and Junghaenel, Doerte U. and Erik Meijer and Elizabeth Zelinski and Jin, Haomiao and Lee, Pey-Jiuan and Arthur A. Stone} } @article {12277, title = {Quantifying self-rated age.}, journal = {Population Studies}, year = {2022}, abstract = {

Chronological age, in conjunction with population life tables, is widely used for estimating future life expectancy. The aims of this study are to estimate a subjective ageing indicator, namely self-rated age, and to evaluate its concurrent validity in comparison with other age indicators: subjective survival probabilities, subjective age, and biological age. We use data from the Wave 6 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, Wave 12 of the Health and Retirement Study in the United States, and life tables from the Human Mortality Database. For the statistical analysis we use multinomial regression models. Our results indicate that health status and frequency of physical activities imply similar patterns of self- rated age, subjective survival probabilities, subjective age, and biological age. However, the impact of cognitive function differs by geographical region. Self-rated age can be interpreted as a subjective adjustment that better reflects the ageing process.

}, keywords = {Biological age, HMD, self-rated age, SHARE, Subjective age, subjective ageing indicator, Subjective survival probabilities}, issn = {1477-4747}, doi = {10.1080/00324728.2022.2030490}, author = {Verropoulou, Georgia and Papachristos, Apostolos and Ploubidis, George B and Tsimbos, Cleon} } @article {11268, title = {Quantifying Lifecourse Drivers of International Migration: A Cross-national Analysis of Mexico and the United States.}, journal = {Epidemiology}, volume = {32}, year = {2021}, pages = {50-60}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Evaluating the long-term health consequences of migration requires longitudinal data on migrants and non-migrants to facilitate adjustment for time-varying confounder-mediators of the effect of migration on health.

METHODS: We merged harmonized data on subjects aged 50+ from the US-based Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS). Our exposed group includes MHAS-return migrants (n = 1555) and HRS Mexican-born migrants (n = 924). Our unexposed group includes MHAS-never migrants (n = 16,954). We constructed a lifecourse data set from birth (age 0) until either age at migration to the United States or age at study entry. To account for confounding via inverse probability of treatment weights (IPTW), we modeled the probability of migration at each year of life using time-varying pre-migration characteristics. We then evaluated the effect of migration on mortality hazard estimated with and without IPTW.

RESULTS: Mexico to the United States migration was predicted by time-varying factors that occurred before migration. Using measured covariates at time of enrollment to account for selective migration, we estimated that, for women, migrating reduces mortality risk by 13\%, although this estimate was imprecise and results were compatible with either large protective or deleterious associations (hazard ratio [HR] =0.87, 95\% confidence interval [CI]: 0.60, 1.27). When instead using IPTWs, the estimated effect on mortality was similarly imprecise (HR = 0.98, 95\% CI: 0.77, 1.25). The relationship among men was similarly uncertain in both models.

CONCLUSIONS: Although time-varying social factors predicted migration, IPTW weighting did not affect our estimates. Larger samples are needed to precisely estimate the health effects of migration.

}, keywords = {long-term health consequences, MHAS, migrants}, issn = {1531-5487}, doi = {10.1097/EDE.0000000000001266}, author = {Adina Zeki Al Hazzouri and Zhang, Lanyu and Audrey R Murchland and Grasset, Leslie and Jacqueline M Torres and Richard N Jones and Rebeca Wong and M. Maria Glymour} } @article {11422, title = {Quest for a summary measure of biological age: The Health and Retirement Study.}, journal = {Geroscience}, volume = {43}, year = {2021}, pages = {395-408}, abstract = {

Measures of biological age and its components have been shown to provide important information about individual health and prospective change in health as there is clear value in being able to assess whether someone is experiencing accelerated or decelerated aging. However, how to best assess biological age remains a question. We compare prediction of health outcomes using existing summary measures of biological age with a measure created by adding novel biomarkers related to aging to measures based on more conventional clinical chemistry and exam measures. We also compare the explanatory power of summary biological age measures compared to the individual biomarkers used to construct the measures. To accomplish this, we examine how well biological age, phenotypic age, and expanded biological age and five sets of individual biomarkers explain variability in four major health outcomes linked to aging in a large, nationally representative cohort of older Americans. We conclude that different summary measures of accelerated aging do better at explaining different health outcomes, and that chronological age has greater explanatory power for both cognitive dysfunction and mortality than the summary measures. In addition, we find that there is reduction in the variance explained in health outcomes when indicators are combined into summary measures, and that combining clinical indicators with more novel markers related to aging does best at explaining health outcomes. Finally, it is hard to define a set of assays that parsimoniously explains the greatest amount of variance across the range of health outcomes studied here. All of the individual markers considered were related to at least one of the health outcomes.

}, keywords = {Biological age, Biomarkers, Phenotypic age, TAME markers}, issn = {2509-2723}, doi = {10.1007/s11357-021-00325-1}, author = {Eileen M. Crimmins and Bharat Thyagarajan and Jung K Kim and David R Weir and Jessica Faul} } @article {11319, title = {Quantitative and Qualitative Role of Antagonistic Heterogeneity in Genetics of Blood Lipids.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {75}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Sep 25}, pages = {1811-1819}, abstract = {

Prevailing strategies in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) mostly rely on principles of medical genetics emphasizing one gene, one function, one phenotype concept. Here, we performed GWAS of blood lipids leveraging a new systemic concept emphasizing complexity of genetic predisposition to such phenotypes. We focused on total cholesterol, low- and high-density lipoprotein cholesterols, and triglycerides available for 29,902 individuals of European ancestry from seven independent studies, men and women combined. To implement the new concept, we leveraged the inherent heterogeneity in genetic predisposition to such complex phenotypes and emphasized a new counter intuitive phenomenon of antagonistic genetic heterogeneity, which is characterized by misalignment of the directions of genetic effects and the phenotype correlation. This analysis identified 37 loci associated with blood lipids but only one locus, FBXO33, was not reported in previous top GWAS. We, however, found strong effect of antagonistic heterogeneity that leaded to profound (quantitative and qualitative) changes in the associations with blood lipids in most, 25 of 37 or 68\%, loci. These changes suggested new roles for some genes, which functions were considered as well established such as GCKR, SIK3 (APOA1 locus), LIPC, LIPG, among the others. The antagonistic heterogeneity highlighted a new class of genetic associations emphasizing beneficial and adverse trade-offs in predisposition to lipids. Our results argue that rigorous analyses dissecting heterogeneity in genetic predisposition to complex traits such as lipids beyond those implemented in current GWAS are required to facilitate translation of genetic discoveries into health care.

}, keywords = {blood lipids, genetic, Genetic Heterogeneity, Qualitative Research, Quantitative data}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/glz225}, author = {Alexander M Kulminski and Loika, Yury and Nazarian, Alireza and Culminskaya, Irina} } @article {9136, title = {Quantifying the life-cycle benefits of a prototypical early childhood program}, number = {Working Paper No. 23479}, year = {2017}, month = {06/2017}, institution = {National Bureau of Economic Research}, address = {Cambridge, MA}, abstract = {This paper quantifies the experimentally evaluated life-cycle benefits of a widely implemented early childhood program targeting disadvantaged families. We join experimental data with non-experimental data using economic models to forecast its life-cycle benefits. Our baseline estimate of the internal rate of return (benefit/cost ratio) is 13.7\% (7.3). We conduct extensive sensitivity analyses to account for model estimation error, forecasting error, and judgments made about the empirical magnitudes of non-market benefits. We examine the performance of widely used, ad hoc estimates of long-term benefit/cost ratios based on short-term measures of childhood test scores and find them wanting.}, keywords = {Childhood adversity, Lifecycles}, doi = {10.3386/w23479}, url = {http://www.nber.org/papers/w23479.pdf}, author = {Garcia, Jorge Luis and Heckman, James J. and Leaf, Duncan Ermini and Prados, Mar{\'\i}a Jos{\'e}} } @article {8859, title = {Quantifying the relationship between patient characteristics and involvement in developing and implementing a treatment plan}, journal = {Drug, Healthcare and Patient Safety}, volume = {Volume 9}, year = {2017}, month = {Jan-01-2017}, pages = {1 - 8}, abstract = {Objective: Improving the patient-physician relationship through patient involvement in the care may lead to improved patient safety and better health outcomes. There exists a gap in knowledge in identifying factors that affect self-reported patient involvement in individualized treatment plans. The objectives of this study were to 1) describe patients{\textquoteright} perceptions of their involvement in the creation and implementation of their treatment plans and 2) determine if patient involvement varied by medical condition or demographic characteristics. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional analysis of data from the {\textquotedblleft}Quality of Care{\textquotedblright} module of the 2008 Health and Retirement Study (HRS). The individuals of HRS surveys were older than 50 years. One-way analyses of variance were conducted to determine differences between patient characteristics and involvement in creating a treatment plan. A linear regression was conducted to determine predictors of the summed involvement score. Results: Average summed scores for each domain (shared decision-making, counseling, and follow-up) and overall involvement scores were ~50\%. Linear regression showed that being non-White, older age, and diagnosed with a psychiatric condition or diabetes were predictors of increased self-reported involvement in the development and communication of a patient{\textquoteright}s treatment plan. Conclusion: Age, race, and having diabetes or a psychiatric condition were the major predictors affecting patient involvement in care, although overall involvement in care was low for all groups. Practice implications: Patient involvement in care was lower than expected and should be further studied to determine the effects of involvement on health outcomes.}, keywords = {Health Conditions and Status, Older Adults, Patient-physician Relationship, Quality of care}, doi = {10.2147/DHPS10.2147/DHPS.S107065}, url = {https://www.dovepress.com/quantifying-the-relationship-between-patient-characteristics-and-invol-peer-reviewed-article-DHPS}, author = {Roy, Natalie T. and Ulrich, Erin E.} } @article {8079, title = {Question context and priming meaning of health: effect on differences in self-rated health between Hispanics and non-Hispanic Whites.}, journal = {Am J Public Health}, volume = {104}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jan}, pages = {179-85}, publisher = {104}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: We examined the implications of the current recommended data collection practice of placing self-rated health (SRH) before specific health-related questions (hence, without a health context) to remove potential context effects, between Hispanics and non-Hispanics.

METHODS: We used 2 methodologically comparable surveys conducted in English and Spanish that asked SRH in different contexts: before and after specific health questions. Focusing on the elderly, we compared the influence of question contexts on SRH between Hispanics and non-Hispanics and between Spanish and English speakers.

RESULTS: The question context influenced SRH reports of Spanish speakers (and Hispanics) significantly but not of English speakers (and non-Hispanics). Specifically, on SRH within a health context, Hispanics reported more positive health, decreasing the gap with non-Hispanic Whites by two thirds, and the measurement utility of SRH was improved through more consistent mortality prediction across ethnic and linguistic groups.

CONCLUSIONS: Contrary to the current recommendation, asking SRH within a health context enhanced measurement utility. Studies using SRH may result in erroneous conclusions when one does not consider its question context.

}, keywords = {Aged, Female, Health Status, Health Surveys, Hispanic or Latino, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Mortality, Self Report, United States, White People}, issn = {1541-0048}, doi = {10.2105/AJPH.2012.301055}, author = {Lee, Sunghee and Schwarz, Norbert} } @mastersthesis {6322, title = {Quantifying the Unquantifiable: The Measurement and Meanings of Chronic Pain}, year = {2013}, note = {Copyright - Copyright ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing 2013 Last updated - 2013-09-13 First page - n/a}, month = {2013}, school = {The University of Wisconsin - Madison}, type = {Ph.D.}, abstract = {Chronic pain is an extremely common, costly, and consequential health problem--and one that defies easy quantification. How do (or could) health researchers define and measure this invisible, subjective, and temporally complex phenomenon? This dissertation addresses this question in three empirical chapters, each using different data sources and methods. The first empirical chapter, based on close analysis of 79 medical studies of low back pain (LBP) and 20 interviews with international pain experts, documents the diversity of pain measures used in contemporary LBP research, and seeks to understand why these measures are poorly standardized. Findings reveal several factors undermining standardization, including the locality and multiplicity of the concepts of "validity" and "comparability," as well as the loose networks of the LBP research community. In addition, some pain researchers, responding to the considerable challenges of treating pain intensity , redefine their work around other, putatively more treatable domains, such as disability or social participation. The diversity of measures of low back pain is thus attributable less to pain{\textquoteright}s epistemological fragility than to its therapeutic intractability. The next chapter uses 11-country data from the World Health Organization and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to test whether a recently developed survey method, anchoring vignettes, can improve intergroup comparability of self-ratings of pain. Results show that, except in rare circumstances, existing anchoring vignettes substantially violate critical measurement assumptions, and thus should not be used. The final empirical chapter highlights the dimension of time in its measurement of chronic pain, using 7 waves of biennial HRS data to identify patterns and socioeconomic disparities in long-term pain trajectories. Latent growth curve models reveal striking disparities in pain experiences by sex, education, wealth, and survival status, but a surprising lack of expected disparities by age and race-ethnicity. These findings do not appear to be artifacts of group differences in reporting styles (though they do appear to result partially from mortality selection). Overall, this dissertation integrates sociological theories, advanced statistical methods, and empirical data to explore the measurement of chronic pain, with a goal of enhancing future research on this important area of health research.}, keywords = {Cross-National, Health Conditions and Status, Healthcare, Methodology, Other}, author = {Grol-Prokopczyk, Hanna} } @article {7487, title = {A Quantile Estimation Approach to Identify Income and Age Variation in the Value of a Statistical Life}, journal = {Journal of Environmental Economics and Management}, volume = {59}, year = {2010}, note = {Using Smart Source Parsing May pp}, pages = {260-70}, publisher = {59}, abstract = {In theory, heterogeneity in individual characteristics translates into variation in the marginal willingness to pay for a mortality risk reduction. Two dimensions of heterogeneity, with respect to income and age, have recently received attention due to their policy relevance. We propose a quantile regression approach to simultaneously explore these two sources of heterogeneity and their interactions within the context of the hedonic wage model, the most common revealed preference approach for obtaining value of statistical life estimates. We illustrate the approach using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). We find that the impact of age on the wage-risk tradeoff varies across the wage distribution. This result indicates important interactions between age and income heterogeneity. Thus, the conventional mean hedonic wage regression, even when the mean effect is allowed to vary with age, masks important heterogeneity.}, keywords = {Health Conditions and Status, Income, Methodology}, doi = {10.1016/j.jeem.2009.11.004}, author = {Mary F. Evans and Schaur, Georg} } @article {7224, title = {Quit Your Job and Get Healthier? The Effect of Retirement on Health}, journal = {Journal of Labor Research}, volume = {29}, year = {2008}, pages = {177}, publisher = {29}, abstract = {Although the health effect of retirement has important policy implications, few economists have researched the topic. This paper utilizes longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study and instruments retirement status using exogenous variation in public and private pensions. Subjective health change models indicate retirement preserves the health of both men and women, although insignificant results for objective health change models suggest the preservation may be more perceived than real. The same pattern of results is found using continuous measures of annual hours. At the very least, the results give strong evidence against the anecdotal idea that retirement harms health.}, keywords = {Healthcare, Retirement Planning and Satisfaction}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s12122-007-9036-8}, author = {Neuman, Kevin} } @article {6922, title = {Quality of preventive clinical services among caregivers in the health and retirement study.}, journal = {J Gen Intern Med}, volume = {19}, year = {2004}, month = {2004 Aug}, pages = {875-8}, publisher = {19}, abstract = {

We examined the association between caregiving for a spouse and preventive clinical services (self-reported influenza vaccination, cholesterol screening, mammography, Pap smear, and prostate cancer screening over 2 years and monthly self-breast exam) for the caregiver in a cross-sectional analysis of the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults aged > or = 50 years (N = 11,394). Spouses engaged in 0, 1-14, or > or = 14 hours per week of caregiving. Each service was examined in logistic regression models adjusting for caregiver characteristics. After adjustment for covariates, there were no significant associations between spousal caregiving and likelihood of caregiver receipt of preventive services.

}, keywords = {Aged, Caregivers, Cohort Studies, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Health Care Surveys, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Patient Acceptance of Health Care, Preventive Health Services, Quality of Health Care, Time Factors, United States}, issn = {0884-8734}, doi = {10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.30411.x}, author = {Kim, Catherine and Mohammed U Kabeto and Robert B Wallace and Kenneth M. Langa} } @article {6591, title = {Question Difficulty and Respondents{\textquoteright} Cognitive Ability: The Impact on Data Quality}, journal = {Journal of Official Statistics}, volume = {13}, year = {1997}, pages = {181-199}, publisher = {13}, abstract = {Older respondents lower in cognitive ability are more affected by question difficulty than older respondents higher in cognitive ability. Respondents lower in cognitive ability gave more DK responses to difficult than to easy questions, while the differences between the difficult and easy questions were not as apparent for respondents with higher cognitive abilities. This effect may result in biased survey findings because responses to difficult questions from respondents with lower cognitive ability would be underrepresented.}, keywords = {Health Conditions and Status, Medicare/Medicaid/Health Insurance, Methodology}, url = {https://www.psc.isr.umich.edu/pubs/abs/1046}, author = {Barbel Knauper and Robert F. Belli and Daniel H. Hill and A. Regula Herzog} }