Abstract
Below we provide a brief summary of the nine articles that comprise the special issue.
The article titled “Educational Differences in Health Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults in Brazil and Mexico” by Flavia C. D. Andrade and Mariana López-Ortega examines educational differences in health conditions among middle-aged and older adults in Brazil and Mexico. Using data from the 2013 Brazilian National Health Survey and the 2012 Mexican National Health and Nutrition Survey, the study finds persistent socioeconomic and sex inequalities in both countries. In general, low levels of education are associated with higher risk for having health conditions.
In their article titled “Religious Participation and Biological Functioning in Mexico,” Terrence D. Hill, Sunshine M. Rote, and Christopher G. Ellison explore the association between religious participation and biological functioning in Mexico using the Mexican Health and Aging Study waves 2003 and 2012. They find that religious participation in 2003 is associated with lower levels of waist-to-hip ratio, total cholesterol, pulse rate, and lower levels of diastolic blood pressure and C-reactive protein in 2012, thus confirming that in this population, group religious participation is associated with healthier biological functioning in Mexico.
The article titled “Association of Healthy Habits Beliefs and Mortality in Older Adults: A Longitudinal Analysis of the Mexican Health and Aging Study” by Julio M. Fernández-Villa, David X. Márquez, Natalia Sánchez-Garrido, Mario U. Pérez-Zepeda, and Mariana González Lara explores the association between beliefs about healthy habits and mortality in a period of 11 years using the Mexican Health and Aging Study. Their results show a significant difference in survival rate between those subjects who believed that healthy habits have the potential to improve health compared with those who did not.
In their article titled “Fear of Immigration Enforcement Among Older Latino Immigrants in the United States,” Nestor Rodriguez, Cristian Paredes, and Jacqueline Hagan investigate how the passage of the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) and other subsequent restrictive immigration policies can negatively affect the physical or mental health of immigrants during their journeys and long after they settle in a foreign land. Using Pew Research Center data and regression analyses, they find evidence of a direct association between the disapproval of enforcement measures and fear of immigration enforcement and discuss the implications for the well-being of older immigrants.
The article titled “Demography of Living Arrangements Among Oldest-Old Mexican Americans: Evidence From the Hispanic EPESE” by Phillip Cantu and Jacqueline Angel examines the living arrangements and household headship status among Mexican-origin individuals 85 years of age and older. Using data from the Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiological Study of the Elderly (H-EPESE) caregiver and respondent surveys, the authors find that the financial standing of the elderly individual and caregiver as well as the elderly person’s physical and cognitive abilities differentiate their living arrangements.
In their article titled “Neighborhood Context, Dementia Severity, and Mexican American Caregiver Well-Being,” Sunshine Rote, Jacqueline Angel, and Kyriakos Markides extend the research on Latino caregiving to analyze the role of neighborhood-level factors and dementia severity on caregiver well-being. Using data from the H-EPESE, the authors observe that caregivers tend to have more favorable well-being in neighborhoods characterized by a larger Latino presence and greater prevalence of Spanish spoken, with these protective factors being particularly significant when the care recipient has more severe dementia-related neuropsychiatric symptoms.
The article titled “Aging in Puerto Rico: A Comparison of Health Status Among Island Puerto Rican and Mainland U.S. Older Adults” by Catherine Pérez and Jennifer Ailshire examines differences in disease, disability, and self-rated health among island and mainland Puerto Rican older adults. Using data from the 2002 Puerto Rican Elderly: Health Conditions Project and the 2002 Health and Retirement Study, the authors find that island Puerto Ricans were less likely to have heart disease, stroke, lung disease, cancer, activities of daily living (ADL) limitations, and poor self-rate health compared with their mainland counterparts. Gender differences in health conditions were greatest among island Puerto Ricans where women fared worse than men.
In their article titled “Influence of Type II Diabetes and High Depressive Symptoms on the Likelihood for Developing Activities of Daily Living (ADL) Disability and Mortality in Older Puerto Ricans,” Brian Downer, Kyriakos S. Markides, and Michael Crowe examine the development of ADL disability and mortality according to diabetes and high depressive symptoms among Puerto Rican adults aged 60 and older. Using data from the Waves 1 and 2 of the Puerto Rican Elderly: Health Conditions Project, the authors observe that diabetes and high depressive symptoms are risk factors for developing ADL disability and mortality among older Puerto Ricans.
The article titled “Hispanics’ Retirement Transitions and Differences by Nativity” by Richard W. Johnson, Stipica Mudrazija, and Claire Xiaozhi Wang examines differences in retirement decisions between older Hispanics and non-Hispanics with a special focus on the role of nativity. Using data from the 1998-2012 waves of the Health Retirement Survey, the authors find that while foreign-born Hispanics retire later than other racial and ethnic groups, U.S.-born Hispanics and non-Hispanic-Whites do not differ significantly on their retirement transitions.