Childhood conditions that predict survival to advanced ages among African-Americans

Samuel H. Preston, Mark E. Hill and Greg L. Drevenstedt

Social Science & Medicine, 1998, vol. 47, issue 9, 1231-1246

Abstract: This paper investigates the social and economic circumstances of childhood that predict the probability of survival to age 85 among African-Americans. It uses a unique study design in which survivors are linked to their records in U.S. Censuses of 1900 and 1910. A control group of age and race-matched children is drawn from Public Use Samples for these censuses. It concludes that the factors most predictive of survival are farm background, having literate parents, and living in a two-parent household. Results support the interpretation that death risks are positively correlated over the life cycle.

Keywords: cohort; mortality; longevity; African-Americans; socio-economic; factors; geographic; factors; oldest; old (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1998
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (78)

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