Age Discrimination and Health: a Longitudinal Study of Midlife and Older Adults in the United States
Year: 2017
Type: conference-abstract
Abstract: Unfair treatment of people based on their age, or age discrimination, limits people’s access to opportunities and resources and increases their levels of stress. However, little is known about the long-term repercussions of day-to-day age discrimination for physical health. This study uses three waves of data from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS, 1995–2014) to examine whether perceived day-to-day age discrimination impacts adults’ physical health via their psychological, emotional, and social well-being. Using 13,098 observations from 6,456 participants, we estimated multilevel generalized structural equation models (GSEM) to test both direct and indirect effects of age discrimination on self-rated health, chronic conditions, and IADL. Age discrimination had significant direct and indirect between-persons effects on all three health outcomes, and significant indirect within-persons effects on all three health outcomes. This suggests psychosocial well-being acts as a mechanism whereby age discrimination “gets under the skin” and harms health.
Source: Innovation in Aging
Authors: J.E. Stokes, S.M. Moorman
Institutions: Illinois State University, Boston College
Language: English
Subfield: Health
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,977
OpenAlex ID: W2732685009