Conditions of Health Across

AmericaFactors & their Correlations

- - - Melissa Thompson

The Big Question : What factors directly influence one’s health?

• Helping to find correlation between particular factors related to health will help the communities and organizations pinpoint how to better improve healthcare.• Healthcare is a highly debated topic in our country.• A personal interest in finding an answer.

Why is this question important?

The Factors I Focused On

•Race•Income•Geographical Location

Literature Review

• State Quality Adjusted Life Expectancy for U.S. Adults from 1993 to 2008.• Jia Haomaio and related researchers sought to find

the life expectancies of those who lived in the U.S. from the years of 1993 through 2008. Geographic location and race were their independent variables. Using the age group of 18-24 year olds, their findings were similar to my own hypothesis—though all racial groups experienced an increase in life expectancy, Black men still had the shortest; Black women & their life spans were shorter than White women. When comparing locations, the South has a lower life expectancy than those who live in the North.

Literature Review

• The Effects of Poverty, Race, and Family Structure• Focuses on children’s health through a set amount

of time and aims to examine factors that contribute to the higher rates of mortality, disease, and disability. Compared Black and White children and concluded that poor Black children were more likely to be in poor health than their White counterparts. It was also found that Black children regardless of socioeconomic status were more likely to be in poor. The highest rates of poor health from children who were in low-income, single-mother families.

Literature Review

• Does Racism Affect Health? | Peter Muennig, Michael Murphy• Intentional and perceived racism does affect

health. African-Americans of a lower socioeconomic status are more likely to live in poor housing, have exposure to dangerous neighborhoods, incur a lack of access to healthier foods, have riskier jobs, and possess a lack of health insurance. Because there is a strong correlation between educational level and poverty, it is a cycle that is exacerbated by racism in institutions and by people—whether intentionally or not.

Hypothesis

•Higher income respondents will feel in better health than those who are lower income individuals.•Those who live in the Southwest are in better health than those who are in the Southeast.•Minorities in general (which includes African-Americans and all non-White ethnic groups) are in poorer health than Whites.

The Data

•The data was drawn from the General Social Survey (GSS) of 2006, a sociological survey data set including hundreds of different variables (subjects/topics).•The dependent variable chosen for this research include “Condition of Health,” labeled in “health” in the GSS.•The independent variables include “Race of Respondent” (race), “Respondent’s Income” (rincome06), and “Region of Interview” (region).

The Data

• The variables needed to be recoded to better assist my goal and make the data more organized.• “Conditions of Health” was recoded into three categories– excellent & good health fell under the umbrella of “Good Health.” Fair to poor fell under “Poor Health.” Those who didn’t answer were recoded as “Missing.”• This same process was used with all independent variables.• Race | White and Non-White• Income | < 50k and 50k or greater• Region | many states eliminated; Southeast and Southwest

The Data

Race Recoded 1.White

0. Non-White

1. 72.8%

0. 27.2%

Income Recoded 1. $50k/yr. or

more

0. less than

$50k/yr.

1. 23.3%

0. 74.7%

Region Recoded 1. Southeast

0. Southwest

1. 72.6%

0. 27.4%

Condition of Health

Recoded1. Good Health

0. Poor Health

1. 74.4%

0. 25.6%

Categories Valid %s

The Results

Variables Good Health Poor Health Chi-Square Df N P

Race 2617 899 26.65 1 3516 .000

Income 1721 378 30.58 1 2099 .000

Region 1007 361 12.13 1 1368 .000

The Results

Variables Beta Odds Ratio P

Race -.136 0.873 .000

Income -1.160 .313 .000

Region .391 1.478 .000

The Results

•All independent variables held a statistically significant relationship to the dependent variable.•White respondents – 8.5% more likely to report being in good health.•When income of the respondent decreases, their condition of health also does the same.• Southeasterners are 9.4% more likely to be in better health than their counterparts in the West.

Conclusion

•Only two out of three of my hypotheses were correct.

Final Thoughts

•Be mindful that one solution is not fitting for all cases.•Use this information to help assist those in a better fashion.• Community Outreach | Get people out of the neighborhoods

and into their communities.• Organizing family-friendly events, public areas for exercise, community

gardens, inexpensive gym memberships, educational classes.• Food Pantries | Give in excess of simple carbohydrates & food

that should be eaten in moderation.• Provide more healthful foods in exchange.

Photo Credit

Orange & Green, Vinoth Chandar

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vinothchandar/5612099123/sizes/o/