IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v68y2009i8p1368-1375.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The dynamics of income and neighborhood context for population health: Do long-term measures of socioeconomic status explain more of the black/white health disparity than single-point-in-time measures?

Author

Listed:
  • Do, D. Phuong

Abstract

Socioeconomic status, though a robust and strong predictor of health, has generally been unable to fully explain the health gap between blacks and whites in the United States. However, at both the individual and neighborhood levels, socioeconomic status is often treated as a static factor with only single-point-in-time measurements. These cross-sectional measures fail to account for possible heterogeneous histories within groups who may share similar characteristics at a given point in time. As such, ignoring the dynamic nature of socioeconomic status may lead to the underestimation of its importance in explaining health and racial health disparities. In this study, I use national longitudinal data to investigate the relationship between neighborhood poverty and respondent-rated health, focusing on whether the addition of a temporal dimension reveals a stronger relationship between neighborhood poverty and health, and a greater explanatory power for the health gap between blacks and whites. Results indicate that long-term neighborhood measures are stronger predictors of health outcomes and explain a greater amount of the black/white health gap than single-point measures.

Suggested Citation

  • Do, D. Phuong, 2009. "The dynamics of income and neighborhood context for population health: Do long-term measures of socioeconomic status explain more of the black/white health disparity than single-point-in-time measures," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(8), pages 1368-1375, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:68:y:2009:i:8:p:1368-1375
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(09)00035-5
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Benzeval, Michaela & Judge, Ken, 2001. "Income and health: the time dimension," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 52(9), pages 1371-1390, May.
    2. Edward Gramlich & Deborah Laren & Naomi Sealand, 1992. "Moving into and out of poor urban areas," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(2), pages 273-287.
    3. Mark R. Rank & Thomas A. Hirschl, 2001. "Rags or Riches? Estimating the Probabilities of Poverty and Affluence across the Adult American Life Span," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 82(4), pages 651-669, December.
    4. McDonough, Peggy & Sacker, Amanda & Wiggins, Richard D., 2005. "Time on my side? Life course trajectories of poverty and health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(8), pages 1795-1808, October.
    5. Subramanian, S.V. & Acevedo-Garcia, Dolores & Osypuk, Theresa L., 2005. "Racial residential segregation and geographic heterogeneity in black/white disparity in poor self-rated health in the US: a multilevel statistical analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(8), pages 1667-1679, April.
    6. Kunz, Jim & Page, Marianne E. & Solon, Gary, 2003. "Are point-in-time measures of neighborhood characteristics useful proxies for children's long-run neighborhood environment?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 231-237, May.
    7. Korenman, Sanders & Miller, Jane E. & Sjaastad, John E., 1995. "Long-term poverty and child development in the United States: Results from the NLSY," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(1-2), pages 127-155.
    8. Stevens, Ann Huff, 1994. "The Dynamics of Poverty Spells: Updating Bane and Ellwood," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 34-37, May.
    9. Ann Huff Stevens, 1999. "Climbing out of Poverty, Falling Back in: Measuring the Persistence of Poverty Over Multiple Spells," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 34(3), pages 557-588.
    10. Emily Rosenbaum & Samantha Friedman, 2001. "Differences in the locational attainment of immigrant and native-born households with children in New York City," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 38(3), pages 337-348, August.
    11. Solon, Gary, 1992. "Intergenerational Income Mobility in the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(3), pages 393-408, June.
    12. McDonough, P. & Duncan, G.J. & Williams, D. & House, J., 1997. "Income dynamics and adult mortality in the United States, 1972 through 1989," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 87(9), pages 1476-1483.
    13. Zimmerman, David J, 1992. "Regression toward Mediocrity in Economic Stature," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(3), pages 409-429, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Do, D. Phuong & Watkins, Daphne C. & Hiermeyer, Martin & Finch, Brian K., 2013. "The relationship between height and neighborhood context across racial/ethnic groups: A multi-level analysis of the 1999–2004 U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 30-41.
    2. Lina Hedman & David Manley & Maarten van Ham & John Östh, 2015. "Cumulative exposure to disadvantage and the intergenerational transmission of neighbourhood effects," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 195-215.
    3. Cerdá, Magdalena & Johnson-Lawrence, Vicki D. & Galea, Sandro, 2011. "Lifetime income patterns and alcohol consumption: Investigating the association between long- and short-term income trajectories and drinking," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(8), pages 1178-1185.
    4. Boen, Courtney, 2016. "The role of socioeconomic factors in Black-White health inequities across the life course: Point-in-time measures, long-term exposures, and differential health returns," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 63-76.
    5. Do, D. Phuong & Frank, Reanne & Finch, Brian Karl, 2012. "Does SES explain more of the black/white health gap than we thought? Revisiting our approach toward understanding racial disparities in health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(9), pages 1385-1393.
    6. Margaret Weden & Christine Peterson & Jeremy Miles & Regina Shih, 2015. "Evaluating Linearly Interpolated Intercensal Estimates of Demographic and Socioeconomic Characteristics of U.S. Counties and Census Tracts 2001–2009," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 34(4), pages 541-559, August.
    7. Cubbin, Catherine & Kim, Yeonwoo & Vohra-Gupta, Shetal & Margerison, Claire, 2020. "Longitudinal measures of neighborhood poverty and income inequality are associated with adverse birth outcomes in Texas," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    8. Satariano, Bernadine, 2019. "Diverse socioeconomic processes influencing health and wellbeing across generations in deprived neighbourhoods in Malta," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 232(C), pages 453-459.
    9. Lekkas, Peter & Paquet, Catherine & Howard, Natasha J. & Daniel, Mark, 2017. "Illuminating the lifecourse of place in the longitudinal study of neighbourhoods and health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 239-247.
    10. Jennifer B. Kane & Claire Margerison-Zilko, 2017. "Theoretical Insights into Preconception Social Conditions and Perinatal Health: The Role of Place and Social Relationships," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 36(5), pages 639-669, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Do, D. Phuong & Frank, Reanne & Finch, Brian Karl, 2012. "Does SES explain more of the black/white health gap than we thought? Revisiting our approach toward understanding racial disparities in health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(9), pages 1385-1393.
    2. repec:dau:papers:123456789/4994 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Maurin, Eric, 2002. "The impact of parental income on early schooling transitions: A re-examination using data over three generations," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(3), pages 301-332, September.
    4. Iceland, John & Bauman, Kurt J., 2007. "Income poverty and material hardship: How strong is the association?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 376-396, June.
    5. David Brady & Marco Giesselmann & Ulrich Kohler & Anke Radenacker, 2018. "How to measure and proxy permanent income: evidence from Germany and the U.S," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 16(3), pages 321-345, September.
    6. Kåre Bævre & Øystein Kravdal, 2014. "The effects of earlier income variation on mortality: An analysis of Norwegian register data," Population Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 68(1), pages 81-94, March.
    7. Islam, TM Tonmoy, 2013. "Childhood neighborhood conditions and the persistence of adult income," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 684-693.
    8. Azevedo, Viviane & Bouillon, César P., 2009. "Social Mobility in Latin America: A Review of Existing Evidence," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 1656, Inter-American Development Bank.
    9. Jørgen Modalsli & Kelly Vosters, 2024. "Spillover Bias in Multigenerational Income Regressions," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 59(3), pages 743-776.
    10. Zhang, Yingqiang & Eriksson, Tor, 2010. "Inequality of opportunity and income inequality in nine Chinese provinces, 1989-2006," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 607-616, December.
    11. Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Dahmann, Sarah C. & Salamanca, Nicolás & Zhu, Anna, 2022. "Intergenerational disadvantage: Learning about equal opportunity from social assistance receipt," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    12. Dodin, Majed & Findeisen, Sebastian & Henkel, Lukas & Sachs, Dominik & Schüle, Paul, 2024. "Social mobility in Germany," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    13. Cassandra Robertson & Rourke O’Brien, 2018. "Health Endowment at Birth and Variation in Intergenerational Economic Mobility: Evidence From U.S. County Birth Cohorts," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(1), pages 249-269, February.
    14. Jesus Perez-Mayo, 2005. "Identifying deprivation profiles in Spain: a new approach," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(8), pages 943-955.
    15. Corak, Miles & Curtis, Lori & Phipps, Shelley, 2010. "Economic Mobility, Family Background, and the Well-Being of Children in the United States and Canada," IZA Discussion Papers 4814, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Galassi, Gabriela & Koll, David & Mayr, Lukas, 2019. "The Intergenerational Correlation of Employment: Is There a Role for Work Culture?," IZA Discussion Papers 12595, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Philippe Kerm, 2002. "How much low income turnover is there in Belgium?," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 341-363, December.
    18. Yuksel, Mutlu, 2009. "Intergenerational Mobility of Immigrants in Germany: Moving with Natives or Stuck in their Neighborhoods?," IZA Discussion Papers 4677, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Malcolm Keswell, 2004. "Non‐Linear Earnings Dynamics In Post‐Apartheid South Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 72(5), pages 913-939, December.
    20. Bhashkar Mazumder, 2014. "Black–White Differences in Intergenerational Economic Mobility in the U.S," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, issue Q I.
    21. Arnstein Aassve & Simon Burgess & Matt Dickson & Carol Propper, 2005. "Modelling Poverty by not Modelling Poverty: An Application of a Simultaneous Hazards Approach to the UK," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 05/134, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:68:y:2009:i:8:p:1368-1375. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.