Sex-specific trends in educational attainment and self-rated health, 1972-2018.

This study examines sex-specific trends in self-rated health and educational attainment in the United States. We also consider how educational improvements shape trends in self-rated health and whether these associations differ by sex. We draw on 1972-2018 General Social Survey data to extend past research through the recent period when American population health has stalled or declined.

State-Level Trends in Lifespan Variability in the United States, 1960-2019: A Research Note.

State-level disparities in life expectancy are wide, persistent, and potentially growing in the United States. However, the extent to which differences in lifespan variability by state have changed over time is unclear. This research note describes trends in lifespan variability for the United States overall and by state from 1960 to 2019 using period life table data from the United States Mortality Database.

Let's Drink to Being Socially Active: Family Characteristics, Social Participation, and Alcohol Abuse across Mid- and Later-life.

Researchers and practitioners often extol the health benefits of social relationships and social participation for older adults. Yet they often ignore how these same bonds and activities may contribute to negative health behaviors. Using data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (16,065 observations from 7,007 respondents), we examined how family characteristics, family history, and social participation predicted three measures of alcohol abuse between ages 53 and 71.

Mass media exposure and maternal healthcare utilization in South Asia.

Maternal mortality remains a major population health problem in the developing world due in part to inadequate healthcare before, during, and after childbirth. Mass media has the potential to disseminate information about maternal healthcare that can improve well-being for mothers and infants, particularly among women with limited educational attainment. This study examines the impact of mass media exposure (e.

Lung cancer mortality among never-smokers in the United States: estimating smoking-attributable mortality with nationally representative data.

Purpose: Lung cancer mortality among never-smokers is an often overlooked yet important cause of adult mortality. Moreover, indirect approaches for estimating smoking-attributable mortality use never-smoker lung cancer death rates to approximate smoking burden. To date, though, most studies using indirect approaches import rates from the Cancer Prevention Study II (CPS-II), which is not representative of the U.

Comparability of Mortality Estimates from Social Surveys and Vital Statistics Data in the United States.

Social surveys prospectively linked with death records provide invaluable opportunities for the study of the relationship between social and economic circumstances and mortality. Although survey-linked mortality files play a prominent role in U.S.

Smoking-attributable mortality by cause of death in the United States: An indirect approach.

More than 50 years after the U.S. Surgeon General's first report on cigarette smoking and mortality, smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in the United States.

Cigarette Smoking and All-Cause and Cause-Specific Adult Mortality in the United States.

This study illuminates the association between cigarette smoking and adult mortality in the contemporary United States. Recent studies have estimated smoking-attributable mortality using indirect approaches or with sample data that are not nationally representative and that lack key confounders. We use the 1990-2011 National Health Interview Survey Linked Mortality Files to estimate relative risks of all-cause and cause-specific mortality for current and former smokers compared with never smokers.

Black-White Disparities in Adult Mortality: Implications of Differential Record Linkage for Understanding the Mortality Crossover.

Mortality rates among black individuals exceed those of white individuals throughout much of the life course. The black-white disparity in mortality rates is widest in young adulthood, and then rates converge with increasing age until a crossover occurs at about age 85 years, after which black older adults exhibit a lower mortality rate relative to white older adults. Data quality issues in survey-linked mortality studies may hinder accurate estimation of this disparity and may even be responsible for the observed black-white mortality crossover, especially if the linkage of surveys to death records during mortality follow-up is less accurate for black older adults.

Hispanic-White Differences in Lifespan Variability in the United States.

This study is the first to investigate whether and, if so, why Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites in the United States differ in the variability of their lifespans. Although Hispanics enjoy higher life expectancy than whites, very little is known about how lifespan variability-and thus uncertainty about length of life-differs by race/ethnicity. We use 2010 U.

Hispanic older adult mortality in the United States: new estimates and an assessment of factors shaping the Hispanic paradox.

Hispanics make up a rapidly growing proportion of the U.S. older adult population, so a firm grasp of their mortality patterns is paramount for identifying racial/ethnic differences in life chances in the population as a whole.

Gender, acculturation, and smoking behavior among U.S. Asian and Latino immigrants.

In this paper we examine smoking prevalence and frequency among Asian and Latino U.S. immigrants, focusing on how gender differences in smoking behavior are shaped by aspects of acculturation and the original decision to migrate.

Racial/Ethnic and Nativity Patterns of U.S. Adolescent and Young Adult Smoking.

We document racial/ethnic and nativity differences in U.S. smoking patterns among adolescents and young adults using the 2006 Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey (n=44,202).

Race/Ethnicity, nativity, and tobacco use among US young adults: results from a nationally representative survey.

Introduction: A growing body of research documents racial/ethnic disparities in U.S. cigarette smoking.

Differential record linkage by Hispanic ethnicity and age in linked mortality studies: implications for the epidemiologic paradox.

Objective: This study examines how the linkage of surveys to death records differs for Hispanics and non-Hispanic Whites and how such differences affect estimates of ethnic differences in U.S. adult mortality.