Age of Migration Life Expectancy with Functional Limitations and Morbidity in Mexican Americans

Abstract

The U.S. Mexican American population enjoys longer life expectancies relative to other racial/ethnic groups but is disproportionately affected by chronic conditions and functional limitations. Studying the impact of heterogeneity in age, time and other characteristics of migration among older Mexican Americans can inform our understanding of health disparities and health care needs in later-life. This research employed 20 years of data from the Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly to assess the proportion of life spent with functional limitations and one or more morbidity (by age of migration and gender) in the United States Mexican American population. Our results indicate early-life and late-life migrant women spend a larger number of years with performance-oriented mobility assessment (POMA) limitations than U.S.-born women. Conversely, mid-life migrant women were not statistically different from U.S.-born women in years spent disabled. Among men, mid-life migrants had longer life expectancies and spent more years disability-free than U.S.-born men. For morbidity, late-life migrant women spent a significantly smaller proportion of their elderly years with morbidity than U.S.-born women. However, late-life migrant men spent more years with morbidity than U.S.-born men. These findings illustrate that older Mexican Americans in the United States are heterogeneous in nativity and health outcomes. More years spent disabled/unhealthy may result in greater burden on family members and higher dependency on public resources. These findings have implications for the development of social and health policies to appropriately target the medical conditions and disabilities of older Mexican Americans entering late-life.

Gender and Age of Migration Differences in Mortality Among Older Mexican Americans

“…Consistent with prior studies, we find men who migrated as children have similar mortality profiles as their U.S.-born co-ethnics (Angel et al, 2010;Holmes et al, 2015). These findings corroborate previous research documenting health advantages among midlife migrant men in disability, functional limitations, and cognitive functioning (Garcia & Reyes, 2018;Garcia, Valderrama-Hinds, et al, 2017;Hill et al, 2012;Monserud, 2017).…”

“…Despite the large mortality advantage of late-life migrant women, this advantage does not extend to other health domains. Research shows late-life migrant women spend a larger proportion of their late life years with functional limitations, and cognitive impairment compared to U.S.-born Mexican-Americans (Garcia, Saenz, et al, 2017;Garcia, Valderrama-Hinds, et al, 2017).…”

“…Among migrants from Mexico to the U.S. during the 20th century, men are more likely to migrate for occupational opportunities, whereas women are more likely to migrate to follow their husbands or for family reunification at older ages (Carr & Tienda, 2013;Donato, 2010;Massey et al, 2006). In addition, recent findings show the association between age of migration and several health domains including morbidity, physical functioning, cognition, disability, and mental health among older Mexican-Americans to vary by gender (Garcia & Reyes, 2018;Garcia, Valderrama-Hinds, et al, 2017;Hill, Angel, Balistreri, & Herrera, 2012;Monserud, 2017;Monserud & Markides, 2018).…”

A Comprehensive Analysis of Morbidity Life Expectancies Among Older Hispanic Subgroups in the United States: Variation by Nativity and Country of Origin

“…Despite a disadvantaged socioeconomic profile, older Hispanics, particularly the foreign-born, have been found to have longer life expectancies than non-Hispanic whites (hereafter, “whites”) ( Arias, Heron, & Xu, 2017 ; Garcia, Downer, et al, 2017 ). However, greater longevity accompanied by unfavorable socioeconomic characteristics raises important questions regarding health patterns of the older Hispanic population ( Garcia, Valderrama-Hinds, et al, 2017 ; Hummer & Hayward, 2015 ).…”

Life Expectancies With Depression by Age of Migration and Gender Among Older Mexican Americans

“…In addition, immigrant selectivity has been found to be stronger among men who migrate at working ages than women who are follower migrants (Angel et al, 2015;Markides et al, 2007). Indeed, recent findings show late-life migrant women to be particularly disadvantaged in the number of years and proportion of later-life spent with functional limitations, disability, and cognitive impairment (Garcia & Chiu, 2016;Garcia, Valderrama-Hinds, et al, 2017), suggesting that an in-tegrated life course intersectionality approach is useful to contextualize the mental health profiles of older immigrants.…”