Poverty and self-rated health in later life: The mediating role of material hardship
Poverty and self-rated health in later life: The mediating role of material hardship
Objective: Poverty and material hardship have both been linked to negative health outcomes in later life. Yet, limited research investigates their combined associations with health. We examined the mediating role of material hardship in the association between poverty and self-rated health.
Methods: Using data from the Understanding America Study, we estimated binary and ordered logistic regression models of self-rated health, including indicators of hardship and income-to-poverty ratios for adults aged 50 years or older (N = 2862).
Results: We found that the association between income poverty and self-rated health was mediated by indicators of material hardship among those with incomes between two and four times the official poverty threshold.
Conclusion: Interventions to improve health in later life would benefit from efforts to assess and alleviate hardship, with attention to those in the middle range of the income distribution who have income too high to qualify for needs-based supports while still being at risk of experiencing hardship.
aging, hardship, material deprivation, neo-material interpretation, poverty
521-533
Li, Yang
4789a098-30e5-4197-8082-e467601b7a52
Mutchler, Jan E.
9cdf3eff-f8c9-4be8-a764-c5d2072e5eba
Li, Yang
4789a098-30e5-4197-8082-e467601b7a52
Mutchler, Jan E.
9cdf3eff-f8c9-4be8-a764-c5d2072e5eba
Li, Yang and Mutchler, Jan E.
(2022)
Poverty and self-rated health in later life: The mediating role of material hardship.
Social Science Quarterly, 103 (3), .
(doi:10.1111/ssqu.13166).
Abstract
Objective: Poverty and material hardship have both been linked to negative health outcomes in later life. Yet, limited research investigates their combined associations with health. We examined the mediating role of material hardship in the association between poverty and self-rated health.
Methods: Using data from the Understanding America Study, we estimated binary and ordered logistic regression models of self-rated health, including indicators of hardship and income-to-poverty ratios for adults aged 50 years or older (N = 2862).
Results: We found that the association between income poverty and self-rated health was mediated by indicators of material hardship among those with incomes between two and four times the official poverty threshold.
Conclusion: Interventions to improve health in later life would benefit from efforts to assess and alleviate hardship, with attention to those in the middle range of the income distribution who have income too high to qualify for needs-based supports while still being at risk of experiencing hardship.
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Social Science Quarterly - 2022 - Li - Poverty and self‐rated health in later life The mediating role of material hardship
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Accepted/In Press date: 24 April 2022
e-pub ahead of print date: 5 May 2022
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Funding Information:
The project described in this article relies on data from survey(s) administered by the Understanding America Study, which is maintained by the Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR) at the University of Southern California. The content of this article is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the views of USC or UAS.
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© 2022 by the Southwestern Social Science Association.
Keywords:
aging, hardship, material deprivation, neo-material interpretation, poverty
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 471710
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/471710
ISSN: 0038-4941
PURE UUID: 280cfcef-019e-4ec9-999a-e70701c53366
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Date deposited: 16 Nov 2022 18:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 22:50
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Author:
Yang Li
Author:
Jan E. Mutchler
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