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Health disparities among young American adults born after 1980 havegrown substantially, according to a new study led by Hui Zheng,assistant professor of sociology at Ohio State University, that ispublished in the December issue of the American Sociological Review . Zheng and colleagues also found that the gaps tend to widen aspeople reach middle age, and then narrow again as they reach oldage. They suggest this is because most young people are generallyhealthy, and at this stage, disparities stay low. But as they age,some develop health problems and diseases, so disparities grow. Butthese fall off again in old age as sicker people die and healthyones remain. In old age there may also be an effect from olderpeople sharing similar health risk factors due to frailty, andthere may also be an equalizing effect from health care usage andprotection through Medicare coverage for the elderly. The implication of these two findings is that the overall gapbetween the healthiest and the least healthy Americans will getbigger and bigger for the next ten or even twenty years, as theyounger adults get older and replace previous generations. Zheng told the press: "As young people today reach middle age and preceding cohorts witha smaller health gap die off, we expect health disparities in thewhole population to grow even larger." Much of this prediction depends on whether the trend of largehealth disparities will continue in future generations, as we seenow in the present baby boomer generation. Zheng expects it will,bringing wider gaps in the coming decades. This has not always been the case, say the authors: before the babyboomer generation, health disparities were getting smaller, forthose born in the early part of the 20th century. But from the babyboomers onwards, they widened again. Baby boomers are people born during the surge in births thatfollowed World War II. Today, the oldest baby boomers are in theirmid-60s, and the youngest are in their late 40s and early 50s. Zheng said the fact they used an innovative new method, means thestudy gives one of the clearest and most comprehensive accountsever of health disparities in the US. Their method combines two statistical models (the Variance FunctionRegression model and the Hierarchical Age-Period-Cohort model)allowing them, for the first time, to disintangle three factorsthat influence health disparity over time. The three factors are: how old people are, when they were born, andwhen their health is assessed (the cohort they belong to). Zhengsaid this was the first time they had been able to look at theeffect of these factors together, and also see how each interactswith the other two to influence the gaps in health. For their study they used data covering 1984 to 2007 from theNational Health Interview Survey, which every year, asks about30,000 people to rate their own health on a five-point scale frompoor to excellent. Although the data is based on self-report, a method that usuallyattracts criticism because it is not based on objectiveassessments, Zheng says it is actually a good indicator ofobjective health. For instance, there is plenty of evidence thatself-reported health is a better predictor of mortality among theelderly than doctor assessments, said Zheng. Zheng and colleagues adjusted their findings to rule out potentialinfluence from other factors known to affect health, such as race,gender, marital status, education, income level and employmentstatus. The results showed that: Self-rated health has declined significantly since the late 1990s. Overall, late baby boomers, that is those born between 1955 and1964, reported enjoying better health than any other age group. A large gap opened for people born since 1980 (showing a widerspread among the five health categories from poor to excellent). Zheng said while their analysis can't explain why this gapappeared, studies by others offer some possible explanations. For example, income inequality has widened significantly in thelast 30 years in the US. This could affect access to health careand other resources important to good health, such as food andrecreational facilities. Another reason could be the increase in the immigrant population,which affects the distribution of health ratings, while the rising obesity epidemic adds to those in poor health. A third reason could be the growing "digital divide" with those whoare able easily to access medical and health information in thedigital age at a greater advantage than those who are not able todo so. But Zheng says the main driver of health disparity in the overallpopulation in the coming decades is the result of what is happeningwith young adults born after 1980. Because they have a wider gap inhealth disparities than previous generations, when you add that tothe fact that disparity goes up and then down again anyway fromyoung adulthood into middle age and then old age, you have awidening of disparities as the younger generation replaces theolder ones. The researchers also found health differences between men and womenas they go from young adults through middle age into their finaldecades. There is quite a large gap in early adulthood, with menreporting better health than women, but this narrows until aroundage 61, as men are the sex more likely to have the more seriouschronic diseases such as heart disease . Then, as the sicker men die off, the gap widens again because themen that remain are healthier, while there is a relatively largerproportion of women with poorer health who remain alive into oldage. Zheng said their model could also be used to unravel and comparethe effects of age, period and cohorts in other types of inequalitysuch as income, wealth and education. Written by Catharine Paddock PhD Copyright: Medical News Today Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today Additional References Citations. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Car Repair Troubleshooting , BMW Diagnostic Tools for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Truck Diagnostic Tool.
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