TY - JOUR T1 - Sex, Race, and Age Differences in Prevalence of Dementia in Medicare Claims and Survey Data JF - The Journals of Gerontology: Series B Y1 - 2021 A1 - Zhu, Yingying A1 - Chen, Yi A1 - Eileen M. Crimmins A1 - Julie M Zissimopoulos KW - cognitive tests KW - diagnosis codes KW - neuropsychological assessment KW - racial/ethnic minorities KW - Trends AB - This study provides the first comparison of trends in dementia prevalence in the US population using three different dementia ascertainments/data sources: neuropsychological assessment, cognitive tests, and diagnosis codes from Medicare claims.We used data from the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study and Aging, Demographics and Memory Study, and a 20% random sample of Medicare beneficiaries. We compared dementia prevalence across the three sources by race, gender, and age. We estimated trends in dementia prevalence from 2006 to 2013 based on cognitive tests and diagnosis codes utilizing logistic regression.Dementia prevalence among older adults aged 70 and above in 2004 was 16.6% (neuropsychological assessment), 15.8% (cognitive tests), and 12.2% (diagnosis codes). The difference between dementia prevalence based on cognitive tests and diagnosis codes diminished in 2012 (12.4% and 12.9% respectively), driven by decreasing rates of cognitive test-based and increasing diagnosis codes-based dementia prevalence. This difference in dementia prevalence between the two sources by sex and for age groups 75 to 79 and 90 and above vanished over time. However, there remained substantial differences across measures in dementia prevalence among blacks and Hispanics (10.9 and 9.8 percentage points respectively) in 2012.Our results imply that ascertainment of dementia through diagnosis may be improving over time, but gaps across measures among racial/ethnic minorities highlight the need for improved measurement of dementia prevalence in these populations. VL - 76 SN - 1079-5014 IS - 3 ER - TY - RPRT T1 - The State of Mental Health Among the Elderly Chinese Y1 - 2020 A1 - Chen, Yi A1 - Fang, Hanming KW - China KW - Mental Health AB - China introduced its stringent family planning policies from the early 1970s, known as the "Later, Longer, Fewer" policies, and followed it with the One-Child Policy from 1979. The number of children born to Chinese parents significantly decreased from 5.7 in late 1960s to 2.5 in 1988. In Chen and Fang (2019), we show that family planning policies have drastically different effects on elderly parents' physical and mental well-beings. Whereas parents more exposed to the family planning policies consume more and enjoy slightly better physical health status, they report more severe depression symptoms. In this paper, we present a more complete picture of the difference in mental health among residents in rural and urban areas, between males and females, between different education groups, between those with one child and those with more than one children, and between widowed and non-widowed. We highlight the role of family support (from children and spouse) for the mental health status among the elderly Chinese. JF - NBER Working Paper Series PB - National Bureau of Economic Research CY - Cambridge, MA UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w26690 ER -