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Published on: January 7, 2013
Urban neighborhood context and mortality in late life
Richard G Wight1, Janet R Cummings, Arun S Karlamangla
1University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. rwight@ucla.edu
Objective:
To examine the contextual effects of urban neighborhood characteristics on mortality among older adults.
Method:
Data are from the Study of Assets and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old (AHEAD). Death is assessed between the baseline assessment (1993) and the first follow-up interview (1995). Neighborhood data are from the 1990 Census.
Results:
The log odds of dying between the two time points are higher in high proportion Hispanic neighborhoods, net of individual-level sociodemographic variables, but this effect is partly mediated by individual-level health. The log odds of dying are significantly (p < .05) lower in affluent neighborhoods, controlling for all individual-level variables and neighborhood proportion Hispanic.
Discussion:
There are survival-related benefits of living in an affluent urban neighborhood, which we posit may be manifested through the diffusion of innovations in health care and health-promotion activities.
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