scholarly journals State-Level Income Inequality and County-Level Social Capital in Relation to Individual-Level Depression in Middle-Aged Adults: A Lagged Multilevel Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (15) ◽  
pp. 5386
Author(s):  
Saloni Dev ◽  
Daniel Kim
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
State Level ◽  
Social Determinant ◽  
County Level ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Effective Prevention ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Us ◽  
Middle Aged Adults

In the US, the incidence of depression and suicide have followed escalating trends over the past several years. These trends call for greater efforts towards identifying their underlying drivers and finding effective prevention strategies and treatments. One social determinant of health that plausibly influences the risk of depression is income inequality, the gap between the rich and poor. However, research on this association is still sparse. We used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and the US Census to investigate the multilevel lagged associations of state-level income inequality with the individual-level odds of depression in middle-aged adults, controlling for state- and individual-level factors. We also examined the independent associations of county-level social capital with depression and explored whether it mediated the income inequality relationship. Higher income inequality at the state level predicted higher odds of individual-level depression nearly 2 decades later [OR for middle vs. lowest tertile of income inequality = 1.35 (95% CI: 1.02, 1.76), OR for highest vs. lowest tertile = 1.34 (95% CI: 1.01, 1.78)]. This association was stronger among men than women. Furthermore, there was evidence that county-level social capital independently predicted depression and that it mediated the income inequality association. Overall, our findings suggest that policies attenuating levels of income inequality at the US state level and that leverage social capital may protect against one’s likelihood of developing depression.

scholarly journals Stagnating National Declines in Stroke Mortality Mask Widespread County-Level Increases, 2010–2016

Stroke ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (12) ◽  
pp. 3355-3359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric W. Hall ◽  
Adam S. Vaughan ◽  
Matthew D. Ritchey ◽  
Linda Schieb ◽  
Michele Casper
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Stroke Prevention ◽  
State Level ◽  
County Level ◽  
Stroke Mortality ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Death Rates ◽  
Percent Change ◽  
Middle Aged Adults ◽  
Stroke Death

Background and Purpose— Recent national and state-level trends show a stalling or reversal of previously declining stroke death rates. These national trends may mask local geographic variation and changes in stroke mortality. We assessed county-level trends in stroke mortality among adults aged 35 to 64 and ≥65 years. Methods— We used data from National Vital Statistics Systems and a Bayesian multivariate space-time conditional autoregressive model to estimate age-standardized annual stroke death rates for 2010 through 2016 among middle-aged adults (35–64 years) and older adults (≥65 years) in US counties. We used log-linear regression models to estimate average annual and total percent change in stroke mortality during the period. Results— Nationally, the annual percent change in stroke mortality from 2010 to 2016 was −0.7% (95% CI, −4.2% to 3.0%) among middle-aged adults and −3.5% (95% CI, −10.7% to 4.3%) among older adults, resulting in 2016 rates of 15.0 per 100 000 and 259.8 per 100 000, respectively. Increasing county-level stroke mortality was more prevalent among middle-aged adults (56.6% of counties) compared with among older adults (26.1% of counties). About half (48.3%) of middle-aged adults, representing 60.2 million individuals, lived in counties in which stroke mortality increased. Conclusions— County-level increases in stroke mortality clarify previously reported national and state-level trends, particularly among middle-aged adults. Roughly 3×as many counties experienced increases in stroke death rates for middle-aged adults compared with older adults. This highlights a need to address stroke prevention and treatment for middle-aged adults while continuing efforts to reduce stroke mortality among the more highly burdened older adults. Efforts to reverse these troubling local trends will likely require joint public health and clinical efforts to develop innovative and integrated approaches for stroke prevention and care, with a focus on community-level characteristics that support stroke-free living for all.

The Economic Roots of External Efficacy: Assessing the Relationship between External Political Efficacy and Income Inequality

2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 791-813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikel Norris
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
National Level ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
Multilevel Regression ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
The 1960S

AbstractExternal political efficacy, the belief that government is responsive to the demands of its citizens, has been declining in the United States since the 1960s. However, scholars do not yet fully understand the reasons for its decline. Nor have they found suitable explanations for why it fluctuates within the electorate. Drawing on the growing literature on the effects of income inequality on public policy, I posit that increasing income inequality factors into the decline of external political efficacy. Using multilevel regression models accounting for individual and contextual factors, I find increasing state-level income inequality has a substantial negative effect on external political efficacy. It is greater than most state and national-level economic measures or individual-level variables on external political efficacy. These results have important implications both for research on income inequality and political participation and also for research on income inequality and distributional public policy.

Does Diversity Damage Social Capital? A Comparative Study of Neighbourhood Diversity and Social Capital in the US and Britain

2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Fieldhouse ◽  
David Cutts
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Capital Social ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Us

Abstract. A number of scholars have noted a negative relationship between ethnic diversity and social capital or social trust, especially in the US. Evidence from other countries has been more mixed and sometimes contradictory. In this paper we provide the first Anglo-American comparative analysis of the relationship between neighbourhood diversity and social capital, and show how this relationship varies across ethnic categories. We apply multilevel structural equation models to individual level data from the 2000 Citizen Benchmark Survey for the US and the 2005 Citizenship Survey for Great Britain. The findings suggest that while for attitudinal social capital among Whites the negative underlying relationship with diversity is apparent in both countries, the effect is much weaker or reversed for minority groups. For structural social capital the negative relationship is apparent for minorities but not Whites, but this is mainly attributable to other neighbourhood characteristics.Résumé. Un certain nombre d'universitaires ont noté une relation négative entre la diversité ethnique et le capital social ou la confiance sociale, surtout aux États-Unis. D'autres pays, par contre, offrent des constats plus mitigés et parfois contradictoires. Dans cet article, nous présentons la première analyse comparative anglo-américaine de la relation entre la diversité du voisinage et le capital social et nous démontrons comment cette relation varie selon les catégories ethniques. Nous appliquons des modélisations par équation structurelle à multiniveaux à des données de niveau individuel provenant du Citizen Benchmark Survey de 2000 pour les États-Unis et du Citizenship Survey de 2005 pour la Grande-Bretagne. Les résultats démontrent que si, pour le capital social attitudinal, la relation fondamentale négative avec la diversité est évidente parmi les Blancs dans les deux pays, l'effet est cependant beaucoup plus faible ou renversé pour les groupes minoritaires. En ce qui concerne le capital social structurel, la relation négative est évidente pour les minorités, mais pas pour les Blancs, mais cette situation est principalement attribuable à d'autres caractéristiques du voisinage.

scholarly journals Changes in social capital and depressive states of middle-aged adults in Japan

PLoS ONE ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. e0189112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shin Nakamine ◽  
Hirokazu Tachikawa ◽  
Miyuki Aiba ◽  
Sho Takahashi ◽  
Haruko Noguchi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Middle Aged Adults ◽  
Depressive States

Minority Threat, Worker Power, and Discriminatory Complaints: State-level Effects on Racial Income Inequality among Men

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 215-227
Author(s):  
David Maume ◽  
Ervin (Maliq) Matthew ◽  
George Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ◽  
State Level ◽  
Union Density ◽  
Minority Population ◽  
Pay Gap ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Minority Threat ◽  
Level Data

Because U.S. states are meaningful polities with differing cultures and institutions, they are important locations for the struggles for resources. Yet there have been surprisingly few studies of how state-level cleavages and institutions shape the pattern of income inequality, especially by race. This article matches individual-level data on income and its determinants (from the Current Population Survey) to state-level measures (mostly from Census data) of varying demographic, power, and institutional configurations. A multilevel model of the racial pay gap is estimated showing that racial income inequality increases with the size of the minority population in the state but decreases with the rate of filing racial discrimination complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The index of labor market power (a scaled index of union density and the size of the public sector) increases pay across the board but does not reduce racial income inequality. The findings suggest that recent and current neoliberal efforts across states to shrink government, limit unions, and abandon enforcement of antidiscrimination will lower wages for all workers and exacerbate racial income inequality.

scholarly journals Comparisons of individual- and area-level socioeconomic status as proxies for individual-level measures: evidence from the Mortality Disparities in American Communities study

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Moss ◽  
Norman J. Johnson ◽  
Mandi Yu ◽  
Sean F. Altekruse ◽  
Kathleen A. Cronin
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Census Tract ◽  
Household Income ◽  
County Level ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Census Tract Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
The Us ◽  
Mortality Disparities ◽  
Household Incomes

Abstract Background Area-level measures are often used to approximate socioeconomic status (SES) when individual-level data are not available. However, no national studies have examined the validity of these measures in approximating individual-level SES. Methods Data came from ~ 3,471,000 participants in the Mortality Disparities in American Communities study, which links data from 2008 American Community Survey to National Death Index (through 2015). We calculated correlations, specificity, sensitivity, and odds ratios to summarize the concordance between individual-, census tract-, and county-level SES indicators (e.g., household income, college degree, unemployment). We estimated the association between each SES measure and mortality to illustrate the implications of misclassification for estimates of the SES-mortality association. Results Participants with high individual-level SES were more likely than other participants to live in high-SES areas. For example, individuals with high household incomes were more likely to live in census tracts (r = 0.232; odds ratio [OR] = 2.284) or counties (r = 0.157; OR = 1.325) whose median household income was above the US median. Across indicators, mortality was higher among low-SES groups (all p < .0001). Compared to county-level, census tract-level measures more closely approximated individual-level associations with mortality. Conclusions Moderate agreement emerged among binary indicators of SES across individual, census tract, and county levels, with increased precision for census tract compared to county measures when approximating individual-level values. When area level measures were used as proxies for individual SES, the SES-mortality associations were systematically underestimated. Studies using area-level SES proxies should use caution when selecting, analyzing, and interpreting associations with health outcomes.

scholarly journals Are All Politics National?: County-Level Social Contexts and Inequality Remediation Attitudes, 2006-2012

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Micah Lindner ◽  
Jason Houle
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Government Intervention ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Public Support ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Social Characteristics ◽  
County Level ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Individual Level

Despite growing economic inequality in recent decades, public support for government intervention to address it has been stable. A substantial literature has documented the individual-level demographic, social, and political characteristics that are associated with the extent to which individuals favor government intervention to reduce inequality. However, less work has examined how the local social environments that individuals are embedded in shape attitudes regarding inequality remediation. Using data from the General Social Survey (2006-2012) and other data sources, we examine whether local economic and social characteristics are associated with individuals’ support for government intervention to address income inequality in the U.S. Specifically, we link restricted General Social Survey data with place-level identifiers to county-level data on local income inequality, racial segregation, and partisan leanings. Broadly, we find that while national and individual-level conditions are strongly correlated with perceptions about inequality remediation, most local-level characteristics were not strongly nor significantly associated with individual attitudes regarding government intervention to address inequality. These findings tend to suggest that individuals formulate policy stances regarding inequality based on national messaging, rather than on observations within their own communities.

scholarly journals Historical Change in Midlife Health, Well-Being, and Despair: Cross-Cultural and Socioeconomic Comparisons

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank J Infurna ◽  
Omar Staben ◽  
Margie E. Lachman ◽  
Denis Gerstorf
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Historical Change ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
The Us ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Middle Aged Adults

Recent empirical evidence has documented that US middle-aged adults today are reporting lower mental and physical health than same-aged peers several decades ago. Individuals who attained fewer years of education have been most vulnerable to these historical changes. One overarching question is whether this phenomenon is confined to the US or whether it is transpiring across other high-income and upper-middle-income nations. To examine this question, we use nationally representative longitudinal panel data from five nations across different continents and cultural backgrounds (US, Australia, Germany, South Korea, and Mexico). Results revealed historical improvements in physical health for people in their 40s and early 50s across all five nations. Conversely, the direction of historical change in mental health vastly differed across nations. Later-born cohorts of US middle-aged adults exhibit worsening mental health and cognition. Australian middle-aged adults also experienced worsening mental health with historical time. In contrast, historical improvements for mental health were observed in Germany, South Korea, and Mexico. For US middle-aged adults, the protective effect of education diminished in later-born cohorts. Consistent across the other nations, individuals with fewer years of education were most vulnerable to historical declines or benefitted the least fromhistorical improvements. We discuss potential reasons underlying similarities and differences between the US and other nations in these historical trends and consider the role of education.

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