Healthy Aging Among Older Black and White Men: What Is the Role of Mastery?

Kenzie Latham-Mintus PhD, Ashley VowelsBA and Kyle HuskinsBA

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2018, vol. 73, issue 2, 248-257

Abstract: ObjectivesThis research explores black–white differences in healthy aging and investigates whether mastery acts as a buffer against poor health for older black and white men.MethodsUsing data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) (2008–2012), a series of binary logit models were created to assess healthy aging over a 2-year period. Healthy aging was defined as good subjective health and free of disability at both waves. Mastery was lagged, and analyses (n = 4,892) controlled for social and health factors.ResultsBlack–white disparities in healthy aging were observed, where older black men had lower odds of healthy aging. Mastery was associated with higher odds of healthy aging, and race moderated the relationship between mastery and healthy aging. The predicted probability of healthy aging was relatively flat across all levels of mastery among black men, yet white men saw consistent gains in the probability of healthy aging with higher levels of mastery. In race-stratified models, mastery was not a significant predictor of healthy aging among black men.DiscussionHigh levels of mastery are linked to positive health—often acting as a buffer against stressful life events. However, among older black men, higher levels of mastery did not necessarily equate to healthy aging.

Keywords: Aging; Health; Healthy aging; Mastery; Men’s health; Racial disparities; Successful aging (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbx105 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:geronb:v:73:y:2018:i:2:p:248-257.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B is currently edited by Psychological Sciences - S. Duke Han, PhD and Social Sciences - Jessica A Kelley, PhD, FGSA

More articles in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B from The Gerontological Society of America Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().