IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v70y2010i9p1373-1380.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Racial and social class gradients in life expectancy in contemporary California

Author

Listed:
  • Clarke, Christina A.
  • Miller, Tim
  • Chang, Ellen T.
  • Yin, Daixin
  • Cockburn, Myles
  • Gomez, Scarlett L.

Abstract

Life expectancy, or the estimated average age of death, is among the most basic measures of a population's health. However, monitoring differences in life expectancy among sociodemographically defined populations has been challenging, at least in the United States (US), because death certification does not include collection of markers of socioeconomic status (SES). In order to understand how SES and race/ethnicity independently and jointly affected overall health in a contemporary US population, we assigned a small-area-based measure of SES to all 689,036 deaths occurring in California during a three-year period (1999-2001) overlapping the most recent US census. Residence at death was geocoded to the smallest census area available (block group) and assigned to a quintile of a multifactorial SES index. We constructed life tables using mortality rates calculated by age, sex, race/ethnicity and neighborhood SES quintile, and produced corresponding life expectancy estimates. We found a 19.6 (±0.6) year gap in life expectancy between the sociodemographic groups with the longest life expectancy (highest SES quintile of Asian females; 84.9 years) and the shortest (lowest SES quintile of African-American males; 65.3 years). A positive SES gradient in life expectancy was observed among whites and African-Americans but not Hispanics or Asians. Age-specific mortality disparities varied among groups. Race/ethnicity and neighborhood SES had substantial and independent influences on life expectancy, underscoring the importance of monitoring health outcomes simultaneously by these factors. African-American males living in the poorest 20% of California neighborhoods had life expectancy comparable to that reported for males living in developing countries. Neighborhood SES represents a readily-available metric for ongoing surveillance of health disparities in the US.

Suggested Citation

  • Clarke, Christina A. & Miller, Tim & Chang, Ellen T. & Yin, Daixin & Cockburn, Myles & Gomez, Scarlett L., 2010. "Racial and social class gradients in life expectancy in contemporary California," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(9), pages 1373-1380, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:70:y:2010:i:9:p:1373-1380
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(10)00068-7
    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. Yeracaris, C.A. & Kim, J.H., 1978. "Socioeconomic differentials in selected causes of death," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 68(4), pages 342-351.
    2. Krieger, N., 1992. "Overcoming the absence of socioeconomic data in medical records: Validation and application of a census-based methodology," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 82(5), pages 703-710.
    3. Wilkinson, Richard G & Pickett, Kate E., 2006. "Income inequality and population health: A review and explanation of the evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(7), pages 1768-1784, April.
    4. Goldman, N. & Kimbro, R.T. & Turra, C.M. & Pebley, A.R., 2006. "Socioeconomic gradients in health for White and Mexican-origin populations," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 96(12), pages 2186-2193.
    5. Diez Roux, A.V., 2001. "Investigating neighborhood and area effects on health," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 91(11), pages 1783-1789.
    6. Williams, D.R. & Haile, R. & González, H.M. & Neighbors, H. & Baser, R. & Jackson, J.S., 2007. "The mental health of Black Caribbean immigrants: Results from the National Survey of American Life," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 97(1), pages 52-59.
    7. Eschbach, K. & Kuo, Y.-F. & Goodwin, J.S., 2006. "Ascertainment of Hispanic ethnicity on California death certificates: Implications for the explanation of the Hispanic mortality advantage," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 96(12), pages 2209-2215.
    8. Subramanian, S. V., 2004. "The relevance of multilevel statistical methods for identifying causal neighborhood effects," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(10), pages 1961-1967, May.
    9. Eduardo Arriaga, 1984. "Measuring and explaining the change in life expectancies," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 21(1), pages 83-96, February.
    10. Christopher J L Murray & Sandeep C Kulkarni & Catherine Michaud & Niels Tomijima & Maria T Bulzacchelli & Terrell J Iandiorio & Majid Ezzati, 2006. "Eight Americas: Investigating Mortality Disparities across Races, Counties, and Race-Counties in the United States," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(9), pages 1-12, September.
    11. Alberto Palloni & Elizabeth Arias, 2004. "Paradox lost: Explaining the hispanic adult mortality advantage," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 41(3), pages 385-415, August.
    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. Dobis, Elizabeth A. & Stephens, Heather M. & Skidmore, Mark & Goetz, Stephan J., 2020. "Explaining the spatial variation in American life expectancy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).

    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. Stafford, Mai & Duke-Williams, Oliver & Shelton, Nicola, 2008. "Small area inequalities in health: Are we underestimating them?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(6), pages 891-899, September.
    2. Subramanian, S.V. & Elwert, Felix & Christakis, Nicholas, 2008. "Widowhood and mortality among the elderly: The modifying role of neighborhood concentration of widowed individuals," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(4), pages 873-884, February.
    3. repec:pri:crcwel:wp08-15-ff is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Butler, Danielle C. & Thurecht, Linc & Brown, Laurie & Konings, Paul, 2013. "Social exclusion, deprivation and child health: a spatial analysis of ambulatory care sensitive conditions in children aged 0–4 years in Victoria, Australia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 9-16.
    5. Martin Gaechter & Peter Schwazer & Engelbert Theurl, 2012. "Stronger Sex but Earlier Death: A Multi-level Socioeconomic Analysis of Gender Differences in Mortality in Austria," DANUBE: Law and Economics Review, European Association Comenius - EACO, issue 1, pages 1-23, March.
    6. Mathieu Ichou & Matthew Wallace, 2019. "The Healthy Immigrant Effect: The role of educational selectivity in the good health of migrants," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 40(4), pages 61-94.
    7. Jonathan Zufferey, 2016. "Investigating the migrant mortality advantage at the intersections of social stratification in Switzerland," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 34(32), pages 899-926.
    8. Bilger, Marcel & Carrieri, Vincenzo, 2013. "Health in the cities: When the neighborhood matters more than income," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 1-11.
    9. Néstor Aldea & Dariya Ordanovich & Alberto Palloni & Diego Ramiro & Francisco Viciana, 2023. "Influence of Place of Birth on Adult Mortality: The Case of Spain," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 39(1), pages 1-22, December.
    10. Arline Geronimus & John Bound & Annie Ro, 2014. "Residential Mobility Across Local Areas in the United States and the Geographic Distribution of the Healthy Population," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(3), pages 777-809, June.
    11. Mark Hayward & Robert Hummer & Chi-Tsun Chiu & César González-González & Rebeca Wong, 2014. "Does the Hispanic Paradox in U.S. Adult Mortality Extend to Disability?," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 33(1), pages 81-96, February.
    12. Vogt, Tobias C. & Kluge, Fanny A., 2015. "Can public spending reduce mortality disparities? Findings from East Germany after reunification," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 5(C), pages 7-13.
    13. Daza, Sebastian & palloni, alberto, 2018. "Income Mobility, Income Inequality and Mortality in the U.S," SocArXiv gdz2a, Center for Open Science.
    14. Kamyar Hasanzadeh & Tiina Laatikainen & Marketta Kyttä, 2018. "A place-based model of local activity spaces: individual place exposure and characteristics," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 227-252, July.
    15. Tommy Haugan & Sally Muggleton & Arnhild Myhr, 2021. "Psychological distress in late adolescence: The role of inequalities in family affluence and municipal socioeconomic characteristics in Norway," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(7), pages 1-25, July.
    16. Vladimir Shkolnikov & Evgeny Andreev & Zhen Zhang & James Oeppen & James Vaupel, 2011. "Losses of Expected Lifetime in the United States and Other Developed Countries: Methods and Empirical Analyses," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(1), pages 211-239, February.
    17. Hiram Beltrán-Sánchez & Alberto Palloni & Fernando Riosmena & Rebeca Wong, 2016. "SES Gradients Among Mexicans in the United States and in Mexico: A New Twist to the Hispanic Paradox?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(5), pages 1555-1581, October.
    18. Masayoshi Oka, 2022. "Census-Tract-Level Median Household Income and Median Family Income Estimates: A Unidimensional Measure of Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-23, December.
    19. Acevedo-Garcia, Dolores & Soobader, Mah-J. & Berkman, Lisa F., 2007. "Low birthweight among US Hispanic/Latino subgroups: The effect of maternal foreign-born status and education," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(12), pages 2503-2516, December.
    20. Jennifer Hook & Frank Bean & James Bachmeier & Catherine Tucker, 2014. "Recent Trends in Coverage of the Mexican-Born Population of the United States: Results From Applying Multiple Methods Across Time," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(2), pages 699-726, April.
    21. Mara Sheftel & Frank W. Heiland, 2018. "Disability crossover: Is there a Hispanic immigrant health advantage that reverses from working to old age?," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 39(7), pages 209-250.

    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:70:y:2010:i:9:p:1373-1380. 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.