Black-White differenece in disability among older adults

Chronic disability contributes to limited independence and poor quality of life among older adults. Generally, Blacks experience disability more frequently than Whites. Although the rate of disability has declined in recent decades, contradictory evidence suggests that newer cohorts report more disabilities than their earlier counterparts. Thus, the primary goal of our study is to better understand how Black-White disparities in disability changed across time and over the life-course among older adults (aged 65+). To date, no other studies have focused on age, period, and cohort simultaneously to examine temporal change and explore the correlates of Black-White disparity in disability. We seek to accomplish this goal by analyzing the Integrated Health Interview Survey (IHIS), which contains multiple cross-sectional waves of individual-level measures such as age, interview year (period), birth year (cohort), limitations of ADL and IADL, bed disability days, and a broad set of demographic control variables. Our preliminary results show that the odds of having ADL and IADL limitations and bed disability days are higher in older Blacks than their White counterparts. Age also positively correlates with ADL and IADL limitations and bed disability days. After accounting for both age and period, ADL limitations do not significantly vary by cohort; however, more recent cohorts are less likely to have an IADL limitation and bed disability days. Further analyses will investigate the trend of Black-White disparity across the cohorts and periods.