Elo, Irma T.
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Publication Own and Parents’ Schooling as Predictors of Cognition: Findings from the Longitudinal Chilean Social Protection Survey(2021-04-01) Elo, Irma T.; Elo, Irma T.; Behrman, Jere R.; Bravo, David; Mani, Sneha; Beccara, Alejandro SanchezA large literature on the predictive powers of own schooling, and increasingly one’s parents’ schooling on cognitive and physical health of aging individuals focuses on high-income countries. There is a paucity of studies for other contexts, including Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). We use data from the longitudinal Chilean Social Protection Survey to investigate associations between one’s own schooling, one’s parents’ schooling, childhood family economic status and cognition of aging adults in a country that differs substantially from the U.S. and from other LAC countries. We further test whether these associations differ by gender. Our estimates suggest that own schooling significantly predicts cognition and that parental (particularly maternal) schooling and childhood family socioeconomic status are significant predictors of cognition. We also find significant heterogeneities in associations between the respondents’ own schooling and cognition for women and men.Publication Early Life Conditions and Cause-Specific Mortality in Finland(2010-02-01) Elo, Irma T.; Elo, Irma T.; Martikainen, Pekka; Myrskylä, MikkoThe purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between early life socioeconomic status, household structure and adult all cause and cause-specific mortality in Finland during the latter half of the twentieth century. We base the analyses on a 10% sample of households drawn from the 1950 Finnish Census of Population with the follow-up of household members in subsequent censuses and death records beginning from the end of 1970 through the end of 1998. The Finnish data constitute a unique register based data set that does not rely on individual recall of early life social conditions, parental educational attainment, family type, and other life course trajectories. We find significant associations between early life social and family conditions on all cause mortality as well as mortality from cardiovascular and alcohol related diseases, accidents and violence; with protective effects of higher childhood SES varying between 10% and 30%. These associations are mediated through adult educational attainment and other socio-demographic characteristics. The results imply that long-term adverse health consequences of disadvantaged early life social circumstances may be mitigated by investments in educational and employment opportunities in early adulthood.Publication Childhood Conditions and Adult Health: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study(1998-06-01) Elo, Irma T.; Elo, Irma T.Poor health and premature death are direct manifestations of biological processes influenced by genetic, environmental, and life style factors. These factors operate throughout the life course and interact in complex ways to produce observed differentials in adult health and mortality. To explain these differentials, authors of most studies have typically examined the role of adult environment, employing such explanatory factors as socioeconomic status (e.g., education, income and wealth), health-related behaviors (e.g., smoking and exercise), and social support (kin and social networks and marriage) (see for example Adler et al. 1994; Feinstein 1993; House et al. 1994; Kaplan and Keil 1993; Lillard and Waite 1995; Lynch et al. 1996; Menchik 1993; Preston and Taubaman 1994; Rogers et al. 1996).Publication Health of Native-born and Foreign-born Black Residents in the United States: Evidence from the 2000 Census of Population and the National Health Interview Survey(2008-07-03) Elo, Irma; Elo, Irma; Mehta, Neil; Huang, ChengUtilizing the 5% Public Use Micro Data Sample (PUMS) from the 2000 Census of Population and 2000-2006 waves of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), we examine differences in disability, self-rated health and chronic conditions among native-born and foreign-born black US residents. Among the foreign-born, we distinguish among immigrants from the Caribbean /West Indies, Africa, Europe and other regions of the world, as well as by Hispanic origin. Results from both data sets point to an immigrant health advantage across all measures of health for all groups except for the European-born. Black immigrants from Europe reported similar levels of hypertension as U.S.-born non-Hispanic blacks. Our results also suggest that the Hispanic health “paradox” does not apply to Hispanics who self-identify as black.Publication Black-White Differentials in Cause-Specific Mortality in the United States during the 1980s: The Role of Medical Care and Health Behaviors(2006-11-09) Elo, Irma T.; Drevenstedt, Greg L.; Elo, Irma T.; Drevenstedt, Greg L.In this paper, we examine black-white differences in cause-specific mortality during the 1980s when black-white disparities in mortality widened in the United States. We group causes of death to those amenable to medical intervention, those closely linked to health behaviors or residential location, and all other causes combined. At older ages, we treat cardiovascular disease, stroke, and forms of cancer not amenable to medical or behavioral intervention as distinct causes. We conduct separate analyses by gender and age group. Causes of death amenable to medical intervention and those linked to health behaviors and residential location accounted for over 60% of the absolute black-white difference in male and female mortality at ages 25-44, male mortality at ages 45-74, but somewhat less than 50% of the black-white difference in female mortality at these older ages. The relative black excess risk was most pronounced for causes amenable to medical intervention with and without adjustment for socio-demographic characteristics.Publication Age-Linked Institutions and Age Reporting Among Older African Americans(1995-09-01) Preston, Samuel H.; Hill, Mark E.; Elo, Irma T.; Preston, Samuel H.; Elo, Irma T.; Rosenwaike, IraWith economic and technological development, numerical age became an important dimension of social differentiation in the United States. The vast majority of Americans now have the ability to report their own age and the ages of relatives with accuracy. Nevertheless, studies have found that age misreporting remains substantial for older African Americans. This paper describes levels of age misreporting and investigates the determinants of age reporting accuracy on the death certificates of a national sample of native-born African Americans aged 65+. Consistent with previous studies, levels of age misreporting are found to be high. When checked against childhood census records, only 53% of the death certificate ages are found to be correctly reported; slightly over 10% are misstated by five years or more. Multivariate results provide compelling evidence that the quality of age reporting critically depends on interaction with age-linked institutions.Publication Africans in the American Labor Market(2015-08-25) Elo, Irma T.; Frankenberg, Elizabeth; Thomas, Duncan; Gansey, Romeo; Elo, Irma T.; Frankenberg, Elizabeth; Thomas, Duncan; Gansey, RomeoThe number of migrants to the United States from Africa has grown exponentially since the 1930s. For the first time in America’s history, migrants born in Africa are growing at a faster rate than migrants from any other continent. The composition of African-origin migrants has also changed dramatically: in the midtwentieth century, the majority were white and came from only three countries; but today, about one-fifth are white, and African-origin migrants hail from across the entire continent. Little is known about the implications of these changes for their labor market outcomes in the United States. Using the 2000–2011 waves of the American Community Survey, we present a picture of enormous heterogeneity in labor market participation, sectoral choice, and hourly earnings of male and female migrants by country of birth, race, age at arrival in the United States, and human capital. For example, controlling a rich set of human capital and demographic characteristics, some migrants— such as those from South Africa/Zimbabwe and Cape Verde, who typically enter on employment visas—earn substantial premiums relative to other African-origin migrants. These premiums are especially large among males who arrived after age 18. In contrast, other migrants—such as those from Sudan/Somalia, who arrived more recently, mostly as refugees—earn substantially less than migrants from other African countries. Understanding the mechanisms generating the heterogeneity in these outcomes— including levels of socioeconomic development, language, culture, and quality of education in countries of origin, as well as selectivity of those who migrate—figures prominently among important unresolved research questions.Publication Africans in the American Labor Market(2015-08-25) Elo, Irma T.; Frankenberg, Elizabeth; Gansey, Romeo; Thomas, Duncan; Elo, Irma T.; Frankenberg, Elizabeth; Gansey, Romeo; Thomas, DuncanThe number of migrants to the United States from Africa has grown exponentially since the 1930s. For the first time in America’s history, migrants born in Africa are growing at a faster rate than migrants from any other continent. The composition of African-origin migrants has also changed dramatically: in the midtwentieth century, the majority were white and came from only three countries; but today, about one-fifth are white, and African-origin migrants hail from across the entire continent. Little is known about the implications of these changes for their labor market outcomes in the United States. Using the 2000–2011 waves of the American Community Survey, we present a picture of enormous heterogeneity in labor market participation, sectoral choice, and hourly earnings of male and female migrants by country of birth, race, age at arrival in the United States, and human capital. For example, controlling a rich set of human capital and demographic characteristics, some migrants— such as those from South Africa/Zimbabwe and Cape Verde, who typically enter on employment visas—earn substantial premiums relative to other African-origin migrants. These premiums are especially large among males who arrived after age 18. In contrast, other migrants—such as those from Sudan/Somalia, who arrived more recently, mostly as refugees—earn substantially less than migrants from other African countries. Understanding the mechanisms generating the heterogeneity in these outcomes— including levels of socioeconomic development, language, culture, and quality of education in countries of origin, as well as selectivity of those who migrate—figures prominently among important unresolved research questions.Publication Consistency of Age Reporting on Death Certificates and Social Security Administration Records Among Elderly African-American Decedents(1995) Elo, Irma T.; Preston, Samuel H.; Elo, Irma T.; Preston, Samuel H.; Rosenwaike, Ira; Hill, Mark E.; Cheney, Timothy P.This paper investigates the quality of age reporting in vital statistics and Social Security/Medicare data among elderly African-Americans. The authors examine whether the death certificate or Social Security age is more likely to reflect accurately the decedents' true age at death by matching their sample to the US Censuses of 1900, 1910 and 1920, and identify factors associated with consistency of age reporting on death certificates and social security records. The results reveal significant discrepancies in age at death data. Birth record availability and literacy were identified as key predictors of age agreement. The match to an early-life census record showed greater agreement with Social Security age than with death certificate age at death. The results have implications for the collection of age information in surveys of elderly African-Americans.Publication New Insights into the Far Eastern Pattern of Mortality(1997) Gragnolati, Michele; Elo, Irma T.; Elo, Irma T.; Goldman, NoreenThe Far Eastern pattern of mortality, first identified in 1980, is characterized by some of the largest sex differentials at adult ages to be found anywhere in the world. These atypically high levels of excess male mortality were present in several Far Eastern populations during the 1960s and 1970s and have progressively disappeared since that time. This study uses cause of death data to determine the diseases responsible for the existence and attenuation of these sex differences in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. The analysis focuses primarily on two hypotheses – regarding the roles of respiratory tuberculosis and liver diseases associated with hepatitis B infection – which were proposed to explain the Far Eastern pattern but were never tested. The results of our analysis indicate that respiratory tuberculosis is the single most important cause underlying the existence and attenuation of the Far Eastern pattern, that the role of liver diseases is far from clear cut, and that other causes (such as cardiovascular diseases) are important as well. Some of the risk factors which may underlie these exceptional mortality patterns are identified.