The effects of COVID-19-era unemployment and business closures upon the physical and mental health of older Europeans: Mediation through financial circumstances and social activity

in SSM - Population Health (2023)

COVID-19-era lockdown policies resulted in many older persons entering unemployment, facing financial difficulties and social restrictions, and experiencing declining health. Employing the Survey of ... [more ▼]

COVID-19-era lockdown policies resulted in many older persons entering unemployment, facing financial difficulties and social restrictions, and experiencing declining health. Employing the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe’s first COVID-19 module (summer 2020) (N=11,231) and the Karlson-Holm-Breen method for decomposition of effects within non-linear probability models (logistic regression modelling), we examined associations of pandemic-era lost work with older Europeans’ (50-80 years of age) self-assessed health, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms, and mediation through households’ difficulties making ends meet, loneliness, and curtailed face-to-face contact with non-relatives. We find that lost work was associated with detriments in all three health outcomes. Total mediation was 23% for worsened self-assessed health, 42% for depressive symptoms, and 23% for anxiety symptoms. In all cases, combined mediation through the two social activity variables was approximately twice the magnitude of mediation through household financial difficulties. This evidence highlights the extent of employment’s value for friendship formation and sustenance, and social activity, during the pandemic-era social restrictions. This might be accentuated among older persons because of the social constrictions often concomitant to advancing age. These results emphasize that the social correlates of lost employment, beyond the financial concomitants, should receive thorough research and policy attention, perhaps especially for older adults during public health crises. [less ▲]

Country-Level Availability and Generosity of Healthcare Services, and Ageism’s Effects upon COVID-19 Era Missed Healthcare

Scientific Conference (2022, August 08)

Further resource multiplication at more advanced ages? Interactions between education, parental socioeconomic status, and age in their impacts upon health

in Sociology Compass (2022)

While scholarship has shown that socioeconomic status creates fine-grained gradients in health, there is debate regarding whether having higher amounts of one socioeconomic resource amplifies (resource ... [more ▼]

While scholarship has shown that socioeconomic status creates fine-grained gradients in health, there is debate regarding whether having higher amounts of one socioeconomic resource amplifies (resource multiplication) or reduces (resource substitution) the health benefits of  one's other socioeconomic resources. A further question is whether these processes are accentuated or diminished at more advanced ages. Using the 2016 and 2018 waves of the United States General Social Survey (N = 2995) and logistic regression analyses, this study reveals processes of resource multiplication between respondents' education and both parental education and parental occupational prestige in their effects upon self-rated health. Furthermore, these processes are accentuated at more advanced ages. Additionally, these interactive effects remain significant after controlling for respondent-level total family income and occupational prestige, suggesting mechanisms beyond actualized socioeconomic circumstances. These findings raise concerns regarding less educated older persons coming from less advantaged backgrounds. Accordingly, policies and programs should help equalize social circumstances early in the life course, to produce more salubrious trajectories with advancing age. [less ▲]

The Health Effects of Workforce Involvement and Transitions for Europeans 50–75 Years of Age: Heterogeneity by Financial Difficulties and Gender

in Canadian Journal on Aging (2021)

A prominent demographic trend throughout the industrialized world is population aging. Concerns about economic growth and labour force shortages have led many European nations to enact policies aimed at ... [more ▼]

A prominent demographic trend throughout the industrialized world is population aging. Concerns about economic growth and labour force shortages have led many European nations to enact policies aimed at prolonging working life. Understanding how paid work among late-middle-aged and senior adults is associated with health is therefore important. Using a sample of persons who were 50–75 years of age in 2015 from waves six (2015) and seven (2017) of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (n = 38,884), this study shows how a comprehensive set of six workforce involvement/transitions patterns are associated with health. The results show benefits of paid work, especially among respondents having financial difficulties. There is further heterogeneity by gender. The more fragmented employment histories of 50–75-year-old women are associated with stable paid work being of less benefit for addressing financial difficulties and with their health being especially vulnerable to unemployment while they are undergoing financial troubles. [less ▲]

Financial Difficulties and Gender as Moderators of How Workforce Involvement and Transitions Affect the Health of Older Europeans

Poster (2021, May 05)

A prominent demographic trend throughout the industrialized world is population aging. In response to concerns about labor force shortages, many European nations have enacted policies aimed at keeping ... [more ▼]

A prominent demographic trend throughout the industrialized world is population aging. In response to concerns about labor force shortages, many European nations have enacted policies aimed at keeping older persons employed. Understanding how later life paid work is associated with health is thus important. Using an older sample from waves six and seven of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (N = 38,884), this study shows how a set of six workforce involvement/transitions patterns are associated with health. Also studied are whether these effects are moderated by financial difficulties. Later life paid work is found to be beneficial for health, and this benefit is accentuated by financial difficulties. The findings also reveal moderation by gender. Older women’s more fragmented employment histories cause stable paid work to be of less benefit for addressing their financial difficulties. Furthermore, older women are especially vulnerable to unemployment while undergoing financial troubles. [less ▲]

Changes in Neighborhood-Level Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Older Americans’ Cognitive Functioning

in Health and Place (2021)

Background: While associations of neighborhood conditions with cognitive functioning at older ages have been established, few studies have investigated with a dynamic perspective if changing neighborhood ... [more ▼]

Background: While associations of neighborhood conditions with cognitive functioning at older ages have been established, few studies have investigated with a dynamic perspective if changing neighborhood socioeconomic conditions affect older residents’ cognitive declines, and which putative factors mediate this relationship. Method: Using data from waves 2 (2010–2011) and 3 (2015–2016) of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) survey (n = 1837), ordinary least squares regressions and mediation analyses were conducted, adjusting for multiple confounders and testing eight putative mediators. Results: Worsening neighborhood socioeconomic circumstances were associated with cognitive declines. Changes in depressive symptoms, sizes of close social networks, and physical activity substantially mediated this relationship. Discussion: While 18.10% of the total effect occurred through these mechanisms, further pathways may work through contextual- and individual-level variables not assessed in the NSHAP. [less ▲]

Compound Disadvantage between Economic Declines at the City and Neighborhood Levels for Older Americans’ Depressive Symptoms

in City and Community (2021)

American cities and neighborhoods vary in their residents’ typical levels of mental health. Despite scholarship emphasizing that we cannot thoroughly understand city and neighborhood problems without ... [more ▼]

American cities and neighborhoods vary in their residents’ typical levels of mental health. Despite scholarship emphasizing that we cannot thoroughly understand city and neighborhood problems without investigating how they are intertwined, limited research examines how city and neighborhood effects interact as they impact health. I investigate these interactions through a study of the effects of the Great recession of 2007–2009. using Waves 1 (2005–2006) and 2 (2010–2011) of the national Social Life, Health, and Aging Project survey (N = 1,341) and in accordance with the compound disadvantage model, I find through fixed-effects linear regression models that city- and neighborhood-level economic declines combine multiplicatively as they impact older Americans’ depressive symptoms. I furthermore find that this effect is only partly based on personal socioeconomic changes, suggesting contextual channels of effect. My results show that we cannot fully understand the effects of city-level changes without also considering neighborhood-level changes. [less ▲]

Changes in Neighborhood-Level Concentrated Disadvantage and Social Networks Among Older Americans

in Journal of Applied Gerontology (2020)

Close social networks provide older persons with resources, including social support, that maintain their well-being. While scholarship shows how networks change over time, a dearth of research ... [more ▼]

Close social networks provide older persons with resources, including social support, that maintain their well-being. While scholarship shows how networks change over time, a dearth of research investigates changing social contexts as causes of network dynamics. Using the first two waves of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project survey (N = 1,776), this study shows how rising neighborhood-level concentrated disadvantage through the Great Recession of 2007–2009 was associated with smaller close networks, largely due to fewer new close ties gained, among older Americans. Worsening neighborhood circumstances pose obstacles to older residents’ acquisition of new close ties, including heightened fear, lower generalized trust, stress and depression, and declines in local institutions that attract both residents and nonresidents. [less ▲]

Changes in City-Level Foreclosure Rates and Home Prices through the Great Recession and Depressive Symptoms among Older Americans

in Society and Mental Health (2020)

The changing economic fortunes of cities influence mental health. However, the mechanisms through which this occurs are underexplored. I address this gap by investigating the Great Recession of 2007-2009 ... [more ▼]

The changing economic fortunes of cities influence mental health. However, the mechanisms through which this occurs are underexplored. I address this gap by investigating the Great Recession of 2007-2009. Using the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project survey (N = 1,341), I study whether rises in cities’ home foreclosure rates and declines in median home prices through the Great Recession increase older persons’ depressive symptoms. I also study possible mediation through household assets declines. I find that increases in cities’ home foreclosure rates and declines in median home prices increase depressive symptoms beyond the effects of personal financial losses. Results show no evidence of mediation through asset loses, suggesting effects through other channels. Supplementary analyses reveal less direct links between changes in city-level unemployment rates and median household incomes and changes in depressive symptoms. [less ▲]

The Multi-Contextual Effects Through Which Environmental Economic Declines Impact Older Persons’ Quality of Life

Doctoral thesis (2019)