Cross pressures on middle-aged adults: a broader view. - Beth J Soldo (J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci, 1996)
Keywords: Adult; Age Distribution; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Family; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged

Disentangling the effects of disability status and gender on the labor supply of Anglo, black, and Latino older workers. - Santiago, A.M.; Clara G. Muschkin (Gerontologist, 1996)
Utilizing data from the 1991 Health and Retirement Study Early Release File, this article examines the effects of disability status on labor force participation and earnings of preretirement workers aged 50 to 64. Results from our hierarchical regression models suggest that poor health and the presence of a work disability significantly reduced the labor force participation and earnings of older men and women. These analyses also suggest that economic well-being was constrained by the costs associated with additional "minority statuses." For example, the odds of being employed were reduced by approximately 46% for black men with disabilities. Further, the earnings of black men were 17% lower than the earnings of their nondisabled counterparts.
Keywords: Black or African American; Disabled Persons; Employment; Female; Hispanic or Latino; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Models, Theoretical; Multivariate Analysis; Sex Factors; United States; White People

The extent of private and public health insurance coverage among adult Hispanics. - Ronald J. Angel; Jacqueline L. Angel (Gerontologist, 1996)
Data from the Health and Retirement Survey reveal extremely low levels of health insurance coverage among Hispanics and, especially, among Mexican Americans. The data reveal that this lack of insurance is associated with lower rates of employer-based and privately purchased coverage. Even after controlling for a large number of insurance-related factors, Hispanics have rates of health insurance coverage that are lower than those of either non-Hispanic blacks or whites. This serious lack of health insurance coverage among preretirement-age Hispanics has serious implications both for health, because the lack of insurance represents a major barrier to health care, and for the adequacy of retirement coverage, because private insurance represents an important supplement to Medicare.
Keywords: Adult; Aged; Employment; Female; Health Services Accessibility; Hispanic or Latino; Humans; Insurance, Health; Male; Medical Assistance; Middle Aged; Multivariate Analysis; United States

The health-wealth connection: racial differences. - Dennis G. Shea; Toni Miles; Mark D Hayward (Gerontologist, 1996)
This article examines the theoretical connection between health capital and financial capital in an economic life-cycle model, exploring possible explanations for racial differences in capital accumulation behavior. Using data from the Health and Retirement Survey, detailed descriptive analysis and a comparison of regression models for health and financial capital are presented. The results, although preliminary and based on cross-section data, suggest possible racial differences in the connection between health and wealth and deserve further study.
Keywords: Black or African American; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Health Status; Humans; Income; Male; Middle Aged; Models, Theoretical; Regression Analysis; United States; White People

Physical activity and smoking: gender comparisons among older African American adults. - Lockery, Shirley A.; Stanford, E. Percil (J Health Care Poor Underserved, 1996)
Little effort has been expended on the examination of systematic health risk behaviors among adult African Americans by gender. Using data from the national Health and Retirement Study (HRS), this article compares differences between male and female physical activity and smoking behaviors of African Americans aged 50 to 61. The analysis highlights a clear pattern of socioeconomic differences with current male smokers, who are more likely to be unmarried and in the lower income and educational levels. Among women, the relationship between smoking patterns, income, and education is less definitive and consistent. Our findings, confirmed by earlier studies, indicate that the largest percentage of the study population, both male and female, are not engaged in any form of regular physical exercise. Thus human service providers must be more attentive to gender and sociodemographic differences in smoking habits and patterns of physical activities to tailor policies and programs accordingly.
Keywords: Age Factors; Black or African American; Education; Exercise; Female; Humans; Income; Male; Marital Status; Middle Aged; Risk Factors; Sampling Studies; Sex Factors; Smoking; Smoking cessation

Physical function among retirement-aged African American men and women. - Daniel O. Clark; Christopher M. Callahan; Mungai, S.M.; Frederic D Wolinsky (Gerontologist, 1996)
Prior attempts to identify factors associated with physical function (here, major lower body movements) among African Americans have been constrained by a narrow range of measures, small sample sizes, or both. The 1992 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) contains a substantial over-sample of African Americans (649 men and 957 women self-respondents aged 51 to 61 years), and detailed measures of high-risk behaviors, disease prevalence and severity, impairment, and physical function. We extend the natural history of disease to the natural history of functional status and model sociodemographic characteristics, high-risk behaviors, disease prevalence and severity, and impairments as direct and indirect influences on physical function in this African American sample. This natural history of functional status model fits the data well for both men (ROC = .88) and women (ROC = .83), although there are gender differences. Slightly over one-half of the women report some difficulty in physical function, compared with one-third of the men. Women also have a higher mean body-mass and report a greater prevalence and severity in 6 of 9 chronic diseases and more pain, but are less likely to smoke or abuse alcohol than men. Importantly, many of the factors with the largest direct and indirect associations with difficulty in physical function among these African American men (alcohol abuse, smoking, body mass, diabetes, heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, arthritis, and pain) and women (alcohol abuse, body mass, arthritis, and respiratory illness) are all potentially preventable or manageable.
Keywords: Black or African American; Female; Health Behavior; Health Status; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Models, Theoretical; Odds Ratio; Retirement; United States

Retirement expectations: differences by race, ethnicity, and gender. - Honig, Marjorie (Gerontologist, 1996)
Analyses by race and ethnicity of several important dimensions of labor market behavior have been constrained in the past by limited samples of the African American and Hispanic populations. This article uses data from the first wave of the Health and Retirement Survey, which oversamples these populations, to compare the retirement plans of African American, Hispanic, and white married men and women. Findings suggest that retirement expectations may accurately forecast retirement behavior and that the differences by race and ethnicity, as well as by gender, that are evident in retirement plans are likely to be reflected in retirement outcomes.
Keywords: ethnicity; Female; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Models, Theoretical; Pensions; Retirement; Sex Factors; Social Security; United States

Risk factors for occupational injuries among older workers: an analysis of the health and retirement study. - Zwerling, Craig; Nancy L. Sprince; Robert B Wallace; Charles S. Davis; Paul S. Whitten; Steven G Heeringa (Am J Public Health, 1996)
OBJECTIVES: This study examined risk factors for occupational injury among older workers. METHODS: We analyzed data on 6854 employed nonfarmers from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a population-based sample of Americans 51 through 61 years old. RESULTS: Occupational injuries were associated with the following: the occupations of mechanics and repairers (odds ratio [OR] = 2.27), service personnel (OR = 1.68), and laborers (OR = 2.18); jobs requiring heavy lifting (OR = 2.75); workers' impaired hearing (OR = 1.60) and impaired vision (OR = 1.53); and jobs requiring good vision (OR = 1.43). Self-employment was associated with fewer injuries (OR = 0.47). CONCLUSIONS: These results emphasize the importance of a good match between job demands and worker capabilities.
Keywords: Accidents, Occupational; Cross-Sectional Studies; Educational Status; Female; Health Status; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Occupational Diseases; Regression Analysis; Retirement; Risk Factors; Sex Factors; United States; Wounds and Injuries

The role of ethnicity in the disability and work experience of preretirement-age Americans. - Linda A. Wray (Gerontologist, 1996)
Using the 1992 HRS, this study examines the effects of social and demographic risk factors, including ethnicity, as well as health and job characteristics on disability and work status among 8,701 preretirement-age Americans with work history. Analytic results indicated that non-Anglo ethnicity was not a significant predictor of disability status but that being African American was a strong significant predictor of being a past versus current worker. The primary predictors of disability and work status were health behaviors, effects of health conditions, job characteristics, and workplace adaptations, factors that lend themselves to policy manipulation.
Keywords: Activities of Daily Living; Analysis of Variance; Disabled Persons; Employment; ethnicity; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Odds Ratio; Regression Analysis; Risk Factors; United States

Who takes early Social Security benefits? The economic and health characteristics of early beneficiaries. - R.V. Burkhauser; Kenneth A. Couch; John W R Phillips (Gerontologist, 1996)
Using the 1992 and 1994 Waves of the Health and Retirement Survey, we compare individuals who first take Social Security benefits at age 62 with those who don't and find that the income and net assets of these two groups are similar in the years just prior to eligibility. However, there is great diversity within the groups, so that poor health appears to be more closely related to lower economic well-being than is early Social Security acceptance status. Our results suggest that raising the Social Security retirement age is not likely to dramatically lower the economic well-being of the typical person aged 62 since only 3% of men aged 62 are receiving Social Security retirement benefits, are in poor health, and have Social Security retirement benefits as their only source of pension income.
RDA
Keywords: Aged; Eligibility Determination; Female; Health Status; Health Surveys; Humans; Income; Male; Middle Aged; Pensions; Retirement; Social Security; United States

Effect of recall period on the reporting of occupational injuries among older workers in the Health and Retirement Study. - Zwerling, Craig; Nancy L. Sprince; Robert B Wallace; Charles S. Davis; Paul S. Whitten; Steven G Heeringa (Am J Ind Med, 1995)
Studies of injury morbidity often rely on self-reported survey data. In designing these surveys, researchers must chose between a shorter recall period to minimize recall bias and a longer period to maximize the precision of rate estimates. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, which employed a recall period of 1 year, we examined the effect of the recall period on rates of occupational injuries among older workers as well as upon rate ratios of these injuries for nine risk factors. We fit a stochastic model to the occupational injury rates as a function of time before the interview and used this model to estimate what the injury rates would have been had we used a 4-week recall period. The adjusted occupational injury rate of 5.9 injuries per 100 workers per year was 36% higher than the rate based on a 1-year recall period. Adjustment for recall period had much less effect on rate ratios, which typically varied by < 10%. Our work suggests that self-reported surveys with longer recall periods may be used to estimate occupational injury rates and also may be useful in studying the associations between occupational injuries and a variety of risk factors.
Keywords: Accidents, Occupational; Adult; Aged; Bias; Cross-Sectional Studies; Data collection; Female; Humans; Incidence; Linear Models; Male; Mental Recall; Middle Aged; Models, Statistical; Reproducibility of Results; Retirement; Risk Factors; Time Factors; United States

Identification of a pathogenic isolate-specific 30,000-Mr antigen of Entamoeba histolytica by using a monoclonal antibody. - Tachibana, H; Satoru Kobayashi; Kato, Y; Nagakura, K; Kaneda, Y; Takeuchi, T (Infect Immun, 1990)
A monoclonal antibody (MAb) produced against trophozoites of Entamoeba histolytica strain HM-1:IMSS, reacted with all of 42 isolates and 4 clones showing pathogenic zymodeme (Z) patterns, i.e., Z-II, Z-II alpha-, Z-II (glucose phosphate isomerase: gamma +), Z-VII, Z-VII (glucose phosphate isomerase: alpha lack, gamma +), Z-XI, Z-XIV, and Z-XIX, regardless of culture conditions, geographical origins, or host symptoms in an indirect fluorescence antibody test. In contrast, the MAb failed to react with 14 isolates possessing nonpathogenic zymodemes Z-I and Z-VIII and did not react with other enteric protozoan parasites, such as E. histolytica-like Laredo, Entamoeba hartmanni, Entamoeba coli, Endolimax nana, Dientamoeba fragilis, Trichomonas hominis, and Giardia lamblia. Western immunoblotting analysis showed that the molecular weight of the antigenic component recognized by the MAb was exclusively 30,000 in pathogenic isolates of different zymodemes. These results suggest that the 30,000-molecular-weight antigen is a marker of pathogenic isolates and that the indirect fluorescent-antibody test with the MAb is useful for the accurate discrimination of pathogenic amebae.
Keywords: Animals; Antibodies, Monoclonal; Antigens, Protozoan; Entamoeba histolytica; Female; Fluorescent Antibody Technique; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Molecular Weight