Urban neighborhood context and mortality in late life.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the contextual effects of urban neighborhood characteristics on mortality among older adults.


METHODS
Data are from the Study of Assets and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old (AHEAD). Death is assessed between the baseline assessment (1993) and the first follow-up interview (1995). Neighborhood data are from the 1990 Census.


RESULTS
The log odds of dying between the two time points are higher in high proportion Hispanic neighborhoods, net of individual-level sociodemographic variables, but this effect is partly mediated by individual-level health. The log odds of dying are significantly (p < .05) lower in affluent neighborhoods, controlling for all individual-level variables and neighborhood proportion Hispanic.


CONCLUSIONS
There are survival-related benefits of living in an affluent urban neighborhood, which we posit may be manifested through the diffusion of innovations in health care and health-promotion activities.
Wight
Richard G
RG
University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. rwight@ucla.edu
Cummings
Janet R
JR
Karlamangla
Arun S
AS
Aneshensel
Carol S
CS
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D003071:Cognition; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D015141:Los Angeles / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011203:Poverty / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D057566:Self Report; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*