Life Course Influences on Late-life Disability in Immigrant and Non-immigrant Older Adults in the United States

• In Event: 067 - Section on Aging and the Life Course Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 03. Behavior and Functional Ability across the Life Course

Abstract

The current older adult population in the United States is not only one of the historically largest older adult populations, but one of the most racially and ethnically diverse, in part due to the growing number of aging immigrants. Despite sharing a racial or ethnic category, the lived experiences of immigrants may diverge from their native born counterparts. Moreover, with the greater prevalence of disability, it is critical to understand how older populations move through the disablement process, especially with the respect to higher functioning stages of disablement and predisability. This research focuses on the life course origins of disability among long term, immigrant older adults living in the U.S. using longitudinal panel data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS). Early- and mid-life socioeconomic contexts, as well as life course timing of migration, are key predictors of late-life disability and disablement. This research uses hazard models to provide a more nuanced picture of immigrant and non-immigrant old adult disablement, using an innovative, multi-stage measure of disability from NHATS. Developing greater knowledge on this process has implications on costs and possibilities for earlier interventions and the delay of more severe disability in later life.

Author

• Rebecca Wang, Syracuse University