Shervin Assari

Race and Urbanity Alter the Protective Effect of Education but not Income on Mortality

Background Although the effects of socioeconomic status (SES) on mortality are well established, these effects may vary based on contextual factors such as race and place. Using 25-year follow-up data of a nationally representative sample of adults in the U.S., this study had two aims: (1) to explore separate, additive, and multiplicative effects of race and place (urbanity) on mortality and (2) to test the effects of education and income on all-cause mortality based on race and place. Methods The Americans’ Changing Lives (ACL) Study followed Whites and Blacks 25 years and older from 1986 until 2011. The focal predictors were baseline SES (education and income) collected in 1986. The main outcome was time until death due to all causes from 1986 until 2011. Age, gender, behaviors (smoking and exercise), and health (chronic medical conditions, self-rated health, and depressive symptoms) at baseline were potential confounders. A series of survey Cox proportional hazard models were used to test protective effects of education and income on mortality based on race and urbanity. Results Race and place had separate but not additive or multiplicative effects on mortality. Higher education and income were protective against all-cause mortality in the pooled sample. Race and urbanity significantly interacted with baseline education but not income on all-cause mortality, suggesting that the protective effect of education but not income depend on race and place. While the protective effect of education were fully explained by baseline health status, the effect of income remained significant beyond health. Conclusion In the U.S., the health return associated with education depends on race and place. This finding suggests that populations differently benefit from SES resources, particularly education. Differential effect of education on employment and health care may explain the different protective effect of education based on race and place. Findings support the “diminishing returns” hypothesis for Blacks.

Unequal Gain of Equal Resources across Racial Groups

The health effects of economic resources (eg, education, employment, and living place) and psychological assets (eg, self-efficacy, perceived control over life, anger control, and emotions) are well-known. This article summarizes the results of a growing body of evidence documenting Blacks’ diminished return, defined as a systematically smaller health gain from economic resources and psychological assets for Blacks in comparison to Whites. Due to structural barriers that Blacks face in their daily lives, the very same resources and assets generate smaller health gain for Blacks compared to Whites. Even in the presence of equal access to resources and assets, such unequal health gain constantly generates a racial health gap between Blacks and Whites in the United States. In this paper, a number of public policies are recommended based on these findings. First and foremost, public policies should not merely focus on equalizing access to resources and assets, but also reduce the societal and structural barriers that hinder Blacks. Policy solutions should aim to reduce various manifestations of structural racism including but not limited to differential pay, residential segregation, lower quality of education, and crime in Black and urban communities. As income was not found to follow the same pattern demonstrated for other resources and assets (ie, income generated similar decline in risk of mortality for Whites and Blacks), policies that enforce equal income and increase minimum wage for marginalized populations are essential. Improving quality of education of youth and employability of young adults will enable Blacks to compete for high paying jobs. Policies that reduce racism and discrimination in the labor market are also needed. Without such policies, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to eliminate the sustained racial health gap in the United States.

Logistic regression models for predicting physical and mental health-related quality of life in rheumatoid arthritis patients

The aim of this work was to develop two logistic regression models capable of predicting physical and mental health related quality of life (HRQOL) among rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. In this cross-sectional study which was conducted during 2006 in the outpatient rheumatology clinic of our university hospital, Short Form 36 (SF-36) was used for HRQOL measurements in 411 RA patients. A cutoff point to define poor versus good HRQOL was calculated using the first quartiles of SF-36 physical and mental component scores (33.4 and 36.8, respectively). Two distinct logistic regression models were used to derive predictive variables including demographic, clinical, and psychological factors. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of each model were calculated. Poor physical HRQOL was positively associated with pain score, disease duration, monthly family income below 300 US

Ethnic and Gender Differences in Additive Effects of Socio‑economics, Psychiatric Disorders, and Subjective Religiosity on Suicidal Ideation among Blacks

, comorbidity, patient global assessment of disease activity or PGA, and depression (odds ratios: 1.1; 1.004; 15.5; 1.1; 1.02; 2.08, respectively). The variables that entered into the poor mental HRQOL prediction model were monthly family income below 300 US

Cross-country variation in additive effects of socio-economics, health behaviors, and comorbidities on subjective health of patients with diabetes

, comorbidity, PGA, and bodily pain (odds ratios: 6.7; 1.1; 1.01; 1.01, respectively). Optimal sensitivity and specificity were achieved at a cutoff point of 0.39 for the estimated probability of poor physical HRQOL and 0.18 for mental HRQOL. Sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the physical and mental models were 73.8, 87, 83.7% and 90.38, 70.36, 75.43%, respectively. The results show that the suggested models can be used to predict poor physical and mental HRQOL separately among RA patients using simple variables with acceptable accuracy. These models can be of use in the clinical decision-making of RA patients and to recognize patients with poor physical or mental HRQOL in advance, for better management.

Needle and syringe sharing among Iranian drug injectors

Background: This study aimed to investigate the additive effects of socio-economic factors, number of psychiatric disorders, and religiosity on suicidal ideation among Blacks, based on the intersection of ethnicity and gender. Methods: With a cross-sectional design, data came from the National Survey of American Life, 2001–2003, which included 3570 African-American and 1621 Caribbean Black adults. Socio-demographics, perceived religiosity, number of lifetime psychiatric disorders and lifetime suicidal ideation were measured. Logistic regressions were fitted specific to groups based on the intersection of gender and ethnicity, while socioeconomics, number of life time psychiatric disorders, and subjective religiosity were independent variables, and lifetime serious suicidal ideation was the dependent variable. Results: Irrespective of ethnicity and gender, number of lifetime psychiatric disorders was a risk factor for lifetime suicidal ideation (odds ratio [OR] ranging from 2.4 for Caribbean Black women to 6.0 for Caribbean Black men). Only among African-American men (OR = 0.8, 95% confidence interval = 0.7–0.9), perceived religiosity had a residual protective effect against suicidal ideation above and beyond number of lifetime psychiatric disorders. The direction of the effect of education on suicidal ideating also varied based on the group. Conclusions: Residual protective effect of subjective religiosity in the presence of psychiatric disorders on suicidal ideation among Blacks depends on ethnicity and gender. African-American men with multiple psychiatric disorders and low religiosity are at very high risk for suicidal ideation.

Race, Depressive Symptoms, and All-Cause Mortality in the United States

PurposeThis study explored cross-country differences in the additive effects of socio-economic characteristics, health behaviors and medical comorbidities on subjective health of patients with diabetes.MethodsThe study analyzed data from the Research on Early Life and Aging Trends and Effects (RELATE). The participants were 9,179 adults with diabetes who were sampled from 15 countries (i.e. China, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, United States, Mexico, Argentina, Barbados, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Uruguay, India, Ghana, South Africa, and Russia). We fitted three logistic regressions to each country. Model I only included socio-economic characteristics (i.e. age, gender, education and income). In Model II, we also included health behaviors (i.e. smoking, drinking, and exercise). Model III included medical comorbidities (i.e. hypertension, respiratory disease, heart disease, stroke, and arthritis), in addition to the previous blocks.ResultsOur models suggested cross-country differences in the additive effects of socio-economic characteristics, health behaviors and comorbidities on perceived health of patients with diabetes. Comorbid heart disease was the only condition that was consistently associated with poor subjective health regardless of country.ConclusionCountries show different profiles of social and behavioral determinants of subjective health among patients with diabetes. Our study suggests that universal programs that assume that determinants of well-being are similar across different countries may be over-simplistic. Thus instead of universal programs that use one protocol for health promotion of patients in all countries, locally designed interventions should be implemented in each country.

Education and Alcohol Consumption among Older Americans; Black-White Differences.

ObjectiveThe role of needle and syringe sharing behavior of injection drug users (IDUs) in spreading of blood-borne infections – specially HIV/AIDS – is well known. However, very little is known in this regard from Iran. The aim of our study was to determine the prevalence and associates of needle and syringe sharing among Iranian IDUs.MethodsIn a secondary analysis of a sample of drug dependents who were sampled from medical centers, prisons and streets of the capitals of 29 provinces in the Iran in 2007, 2091 male IDUs entered. Socio-demographic data, drug use data and high risk behaviors entered to a logistic regression to determine independent predictors of lifetime needle and syringe sharing.Results749(35.8%) reported lifetime experience of needle and syringe sharing. The likelihood of lifetime needle and syringe sharing was increased by female gender, being jobless, having illegal income, drug use by family members, pleasure/enjoyment as causes of first injection, first injection in roofless and roofed public places, usual injection at groin, usual injection at scrotum, lifetime experience of nonfatal overdose, and history of arrest in past year and was decreased by being alone at most injections.ConclusionHowever this data has been extracted from cross-sectional design and we can not conclude causation, some of the introduced variables with association with needle and syringe sharing may be used in HIV prevention programs which target reducing syringe sharing among IDUs.

Black-White differences in the effect of baseline depressive symptoms on deaths due to renal diseases: 25 year follow up of a nationally representative community sample

Purpose Despite the well-established association between baseline depressive symptoms and risk of all cause-mortality, limited information exists on racial differences in the residual effects of baseline depressive symptoms above and beyond socioeconomic status (SES) and physical health on this link. The current study compared Blacks and Whites for the residual effects of depressive symptoms over SES and health on risk of long-term all-cause mortality in the U.S. Methods Data were obtained from the Americans’ Changing Lives Study, a nationally representative longitudinal cohort of U.S. adults with up to 25 years of follow-up. The study followed 3,361 Blacks and Whites for all-cause mortality between 1986 and 2011. The main predictor of interest was baseline depressive symptoms measured at 1986 using an 11-item Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale. Covariates included baseline demographics (age and gender), SES (education and income), and health [chronic medical conditions (CMCs), self-rated health (SRH), and body mass index (BMI)] measured at 1986. Race (Black versus White) was the focal moderator. We ran a series of Cox proportional hazard models in the pooled sample and also stratified by race. Results In the pooled sample, higher depressive symptoms at baseline were associated with higher risk of all-cause mortality except when the CMC, SRH, and BMI were added to the model. In this later model, race interacted with baseline depressive symptoms, suggesting a larger effect of depressive symptoms on mortality among Whites compared to Blacks. Among Whites, depressive symptoms were associated with increased risk of mortality, after controlling for SES but not after controlling for health (CMC, SRH, and BMI). Among Blacks, depressive symptoms were not associated with mortality before health was introduced to the model. After controlling for health, baseline depressive symptoms showed an inverse association with all-cause mortality among Blacks. Although the effect of baseline depressive symptoms on mortality disappeared after controlling for health among Whites, SRH did not interfere (confound) with the effect of depressive symptoms on mortality among Blacks. Conclusion The effect of depressive symptoms on increased risk of all-cause mortality, which existed among Whites, could not be found for Blacks. In addition, race may modify the roles that SES and health play regarding the link between depressive symptoms and mortality over a long period of time.

High Risk of Depression in High-Income African American Boys

Purpose Although the link between education and alcohol consumption is known, limited information exists on racial differences in this link. We conducted the current study to test Black–White differences in the association between education and alcohol consumption among older adults in the U.S. Methods This cross-sectional survey enrolled 1,493 Black (n = 734) and White (n = 759) older adults (age 66 or more) in U.S. Data came from the Religion, Aging, and Health Survey, 2001. Race, demographics, socioeconomics, and alcohol consumption were measured. Independent variable was education level. Outcome was alcohol consumption. Race was the focal moderator. Logistic regression was used for data analysis. Results Education was positively associated with ever drinking in the pooled sample. However, race interacted with education level on drinking, suggesting a smaller effect of education on drinking for Blacks compared to Whites. Among Whites, high-school graduation and college graduation were associated with increased odds of ever drinking, net of covariates. Among Blacks, high-school graduation, but not college graduation, was associated with ever drinking. Conclusion Blacks and Whites differ in how socioeconomic status (i.e., education) shapes behaviors, especially health behaviors (i.e., drinking). How race modifies consequences and correlates of social determinants of health is not yet clear. College graduation may result in the same level of change to the social network and income of race group members. Weaker effect of education on health of Blacks may be due to the structural role of race and racism that has resulted in lower job availability and pay for Blacks.