Sociohistorical Changes in the Education–Health Gradient: A Five-Cohort Comparative Study of Black and White US Adults
Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: TIRTH BHATTAPrior studies on cohort-specific trends in the education gradient in health treat the distribution of education within a particular cohort as a static "starting place" for understanding subsequent health disparities.This premise neglects early life structural factors that shape educational attainment and could lead to an over-attribution of the effect of education on health.This has hindered the explorations of substantial sociohistorical changes in opportunity structures in the past century and their role in altering educational differences in health across birth cohorts.By employing a novel counterfactual approach, this study undertakes the first systematic attempt to accommodate interrelated indicators of socioeconomic status over the life course in comparative cohort studies of the link between education and later-life health.Synthesizing cumulative dis/advantage and fundamental cause of disease theory, this study utilizes Health and Retirement Survey (1992-2012) to explore historical variation (based on five sequential birth cohorts; born in the effect of education on later-life functional limitations.This study also considers the role of historical changes in race relations in affecting racial dynamics in education-health gradient.Findings documented a remarkably stable overall effect of childhood dis/advantage on education across cohorts.The effect of childhood dis/advantage on the likelihood of educational attainment is persistent for White adults across all cohorts, but such effect for Black adults only emerged for cohorts born after 1930s.For most of the birth cohorts, the effect of education on functional limitations reduced after accounting for early life selection processes.The reduction, however, was greater in recent two cohorts.This study found a steady increase in the impact of educational attainment on functional limitations across birth cohorts.The most notable increase was documented between two cohorts born during 1942-1953.While the effect of education on functional limitations was considerably stronger for White adults than their Black counterparts across all cohorts, the increase in its effect on later-life functional limitations in more recent cohorts was observed for both racial groups.This study extends the existing body of knowledge by investigating the role of changing opportunity structures in modifying patterns of education-based inequalities in health across historical periods.
Author: Tirth Bhatta
Institution: Case Western Reserve University
Language: English
Subfield: Health
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Sage Foundation
OpenAlex ID: W2901697219