Dynamics of Financial Hardship in the United States: Health and Retirement Study 2006-2016.

The purpose of this study was to examine the temporal trends and dynamics of financial hardship among older adults in the U.S. between 2006 and 2016 using the Health and Retirement Study.

The Moderating Effect of Social Support and Social Integration on the Relationship Between Involuntary Job Loss and Health.

Background: Job loss is a stressful life event that is associated with changes in somatic, behavioral, and affective well-being. This cohort study investigates whether social support and social integration moderate the relationship between job loss and mental health.

Methods: Data from four waves of the Americans' Changing Lives data set were collapsed into three wave-pairs.

The price of mental well-being in later life: the role of financial hardship and debt.

Objective: This study investigated the associations between various financial hardship and debt indicators and mental health status among older adults.

Methods: Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we considered the association between different forms of financial hardship and debt of those who were identified as having high levels of depressive symptoms ( = 7678) and anxiety ( = 8079). Financial hardship indicators: difficulty paying bills, food insecurity, and medication need; debt indicators: credit card and medical debt.

Association between Falls and Caregiving Tasks among Informal Caregivers: Canadian Community Health Survey Data.

Falls are a common cause of morbidity and mortality in older adults. While research has explored the relationship between older care recipient falls and caregiver health, there has been little investigation of the relationship between caregiving tasks and falls in older caregivers. This study assessed associations between falls and caregiving frequency and type of caregiving tasks among informal older caregivers.

Establishing a Timeline to Discontinue Routine Testing of Asymptomatic Pregnant Women for Zika Virus Infection - American Samoa, 2016-2017.

The first patients with laboratory-confirmed cases of Zika virus disease in American Samoa had symptom onset in January 2016 (1). In response, the American Samoa Department of Health (ASDoH) implemented mosquito control measures (1), strategies to protect pregnant women (1), syndromic surveillance based on electronic health record (EHR) reports (1), Zika virus testing of persons with one or more signs or symptoms of Zika virus disease (fever, rash, arthralgia, or conjunctivitis) (1-3), and routine testing of all asymptomatic pregnant women in accordance with CDC guidance (2,3) All collected blood and urine specimens were shipped to the Hawaii Department of Health Laboratory for Zika virus testing and to CDC for confirmatory testing. Early in the response, collection and testing of specimens from pregnant women was prioritized over the collection from symptomatic nonpregnant patients because of limited testing and shipping capacity.

Tobacco cessation and household spending on non-tobacco goods: results from the US Consumer Expenditure Surveys.

Objectives: To estimate the impact of tobacco cessation on household spending on non-tobacco goods in the USA.

Methods: Using 2006-2015 Consumer Expenditure Survey data 9130 tobacco-consuming households were followed for four quarters. Households were categorised during the fourth quarter as having: (1) recent tobacco cessation, (2) long-term cessation, (3) relapsed cessation or (4) no cessation.

Relationship Between Falls and Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to examine the potential relationship between different forms of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use and falls among older adults in New York City (NYC).

Design: This cross-sectional study of data from the NYC Health Indicators Project survey used modified questionnaire items from several national surveys.

Settings: Participants were recruited from 56 senior centers located in the 5 boroughs of NYC.

Mechanisms of the Effect of Involuntary Retirement on Older Adults' Self-Rated Health and Mental Health.

This study examined mechanisms of the effect of involuntary retirement on self-rated health and mental health among adults aged 50 or older. Using two waves of the Health and Retirement Study (2006 and 2010), we selected a sample of 1,195 individuals working for pay at baseline who responded to a lifestyle questionnaire in both waves. Regression-based path analyses were conducted to test the mediating effects of financial control, positive and negative family relationships, and social integration on the relationship between involuntary retirement and self-rated health and mental health.

The effect of retirement on alcohol consumption: results from the US Health and Retirement Study.

Background: Prior research examining the association between retirement and alcohol consumption is inconsistent with respect to salience, direction and magnitude. Reasonable conceptual arguments for both positive (e.g.

Mind-body techniques, race-ethnicity, and depression among urban senior center participants.

As the older adult population grows and becomes more diverse, more of its members are turning to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). There are mixed findings regarding racial and ethnic differences in the use of CAM. This article explores racial and ethnic differences in use of a category of CAM known as mind-body techniques (MBT) among senior center participants with symptoms of depression.

The impact of early occupational choice on health behaviors.

Occupational choice is a significant input into workers' health investments, operating in a manner that can be either health-promoting or health-depreciating. Recent studies have highlighted the potential importance of initial occupational choice on subsequent outcomes pertaining to morbidity. This study is the first to assess the existence and strength of a causal relationship between initial occupational choice at labor entry and subsequent health behaviors and habits.

Inequality and the association between involuntary job loss and depressive symptoms.

Although socioeconomic status (SES) has been to shown to be associated with susceptibility to involuntary job loss as well as with health, the ways in which individual SES indicators may moderate the job loss-health association remain underexplored. Using data from the Americans' Changing Lives study, we estimate the ways in which the association between job loss and depressive symptoms depends on five aspects of SES: education, income, occupational prestige, wealth, and homeownership. Our findings indicate that higher SES prior to job loss is not uniformly associated with fewer depressive symptoms.

Racial and ethnic diversity in senior centers: comparing participant characteristics in more and less multicultural settings.

The 2008 Health Indicators Project surveyed a probability sample (N = 1,870) of New York City senior center participants. Attendees of racially and ethnically diverse and nondiverse senior centers were compared across 5 domains: demographics; health and quality of life; social support networks; neighborhood perceptions and engagement; health service access/utilization. Although homogeneous and diverse center participants demonstrate similar health and quality-of-life outcomes, those from diverse centers demonstrate greater risk of social isolation, receive less family support, and more likely seek medical care from hospitals or community clinics.

Environmental factors associated with primary care access among urban older adults.

Disparities in primary care access and quality impede optimal chronic illness prevention and management for older adults. Although research has shown associations between neighborhood attributes and health, little is known about how these factors - in particular, the primary care infrastructure - inform older adults' primary care use. Using geographic data on primary care physician supply and surveys from 1260 senior center attendees in New York City, we examined factors that facilitate and hinder primary care use for individuals living in service areas with different supply levels.

Understanding heterogeneity in price elasticities in the demand for alcohol for older individuals.

This paper estimates the price elasticity of demand for alcohol using Health and Retirement Study data. To account for unobserved heterogeneity in price responsiveness, we use finite mixture models. We recover two latent groups, one is significantly responsive to price, but the other is unresponsive.

Linking neighborhood characteristics to food insecurity in older adults: the role of perceived safety, social cohesion, and walkability.

Among the 14.6% of American households experiencing food insecurity, approximately 2 million are occupied by older adults. Food insecurity among older adults has been linked to poor health, lower cognitive function, and poor mental health outcomes.

The influence of neighborhood factors on the quality of life of older adults attending New York City senior centers: results from the Health Indicators Project.

Purpose: To examine the association between self-assessed quality of life (QOL) and perceived neighborhood safety, social cohesion, and walkability among older adults in New York City (NYC).

Methods: We used data from the 2008 Health Indicators Project, a cross-sectional survey of 1,870 older adults attending 56 NYC senior centers. QOL, a binary measure, was created by dichotomizing a 5-point Likert-scaled global assessment.

Risk factors at the low end of the psychosis continuum: much the same as at the upper end?

We investigated risk factors for subclinical symptoms of psychosis, and focused on two psychosis dimensions previously identified in the Zurich Study, namely "schizophrenia nuclear symptoms" and "schizotypal signs". We examined the data from 9814 Swiss conscripts from 2003. The psychosis symptom dimensions were derived from the Symptom-Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R), and were regressed on a broad range of known risk factors for psychosis.

The effect of job loss on overweight and drinking.

This paper examines the impact of job loss due to business closings on body mass index (BMI) and alcohol consumption. We suggest that the ambiguous findings in the extant literature may be due in part to unobserved heterogeneity in response and in part due to an overly broad measure of job loss that is partially endogenous (e.g.

Job loss and depression: the role of subjective expectations.

Although the importance of expectations is well documented in the decision-making literature, a key shortcoming of the empirical research into effects of involuntary job loss on depression is perhaps its neglect of the subjective expectations of job loss. Using data from the US Health and Retirement Study surveys we examine whether the impact of job loss on mental health is influenced by an individual's subjective expectations regarding future displacement. Our results imply that, among older workers in the age range of 55-65 year, subjective expectations are as significant predictors of depression as job loss itself, and ignoring them can bias the estimate of the impact of job loss on mental health.

Differential changes in body mass index after retirement by occupation: hierarchical models.

Objectives: This paper examines whether retirement differentially affects body mass index (BMI) patterns by occupation; occupation embodies differences in on-the-job physical demands as well as socioeconomic characteristics that could lead to variation in post-retirement BMI.

Methods: We use 12 years of national data from the US and hierarchical linear models to compare BMI trajectories among four broad occupational classes.

Results: We find that those in service and other blue-collar occupations have significant increases in the slopes of their BMI trajectories after retirement, whereas participants in white-collar occupations exhibit no change.

Impact of resilience enhancing programs on youth surviving the Beslan school siege.

The objective of this study was to evaluate a resilience-enhancing program for youth (mean age = 13.32 years) from Beslan, North Ossetia, in the Russian Federation. The program, offered in the summer of 2006, combined recreation, sport, and psychosocial rehabilitation activities for 94 participants, 46 of who were taken hostage in the 2004 school tragedy and experienced those events first hand.