Losing ground at midlife in America

Meara, Ellen; Skinner, Jonathan

doi:10.1073/pnas.1519763112

Cited by 43 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016). Because coping with stress is often considered a motive for marijuana use (Buckner et al, 2007; Bujarski et al, 2012; Simons et al, 2000), financial hardship and economic insecurity related to the weak national economy could have contributed to this increased prevalence nationally, particularly for low-income men (Case and Deaton, 2015; Meara and Skinner, 2015). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The widening gender gap in marijuana use prevalence in the U.S. during a period of economic change, 2002–2014

Carliner

Mauro

Brown

et al. 2017

Drug and Alcohol Dependence

149

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Aim Concurrently with increasingly permissive attitudes towards marijuana use and its legalization, the prevalence of marijuana use has increased in recent years in the U.S. Substance use is generally more prevalent in men than women, although for alcohol, the gender gap is narrowing. However, information is lacking on whether time trends in marijuana use differ by gender, or whether socioeconomic status in the context of the Great Recession may affect these changes. Methods Using repeated cross-sectional data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2002–2014), we examined changes over time in prevalence of past-year marijuana use by gender, and whether gender differences varied across income levels. After empirically determining a change point in use in 2007, we used logistic regression to test interaction terms including time, gender, and income level. Results Prevalence of marijuana use increased for both men (+4.0%) and women (+2.7%) from 2002 to 2014, with all of the increase occurring from 2007 to 2014. Increases were greater for men, leading to a widening of the gender gap over time (p < 0.001). This divergence occurred primarily due to increased prevalence among men in the lowest income level (+6.2%) from 2007 to 2014. Conclusion Our findings are consistent with other studies documenting increased substance use during times of economic insecurity, especially among men. Corresponding with the Great Recession and lower employment rate beginning in 2007, low-income men showed the greatest increases in marijuana use during this period, leading to a widening of the gender gap in prevalence of marijuana use over time.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The widening gender gap in marijuana use prevalence in the U.S. during a period of economic change, 2002–2014

Carliner

Mauro

Brown

et al. 2017

Drug and Alcohol Dependence

149

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“…As noted by Meara and Skinner (2015) in their commentary on Case and Deaton (2015), increases in mortality from deaths of despair would not have been large enough to change the direction of all-cause mortality for US whites had this group maintained its progress against other causes of death. For the two major causes of death in midlife, heart disease and cancer, the rate of mortality decline for age groups 45–49 and 50–54 fell from 2 percent per year on average between 1990 and 1999 to 1 percent per year between 2000–2014.…”

Section: Mortality and Morbidity In The Us And Other Rich Countriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mortality and Morbidity in the 21st Century

Case

Deaton

2017

Brookings Papers on Economic Activity

1,035

815

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SUMMARYWe build on and extend the findings in Case and Deaton (2015) on increases in mortality and morbidity among white non-Hispanic Americans in midlife since the turn of the century. Increases in all-cause mortality continued unabated to 2015, with additional increases in drug overdoses, suicides, and alcohol-related liver mortality, particularly among those with a high-school degree or less. The decline in mortality from heart disease has slowed and, most recently, stopped, and this combined with the three other causes is responsible for the increase in all-cause mortality. Not only are educational differences in mortality among whites increasing, but from 1998 to 2015 mortality rose for those without, and fell for those with, a college degree. This is true for nonHispanic white men and women in all five year age groups from 35-39 through 55-59. Mortality rates among blacks and Hispanics continued to fall; in 1999, the mortality rate of white nonHispanics aged 50-54 with only a high-school degree was 30 percent lower than the mortality rate of blacks in the same age group but irrespective of education; by 2015, it was 30 percent higher.There are similar crossovers in all age groups from 25-29 to 60-64.Mortality rates in comparable rich countries have continued their pre-millennial fall at the rates that used to characterize the US. In contrast to the US, mortality rates in Europe are falling for those with low levels of educational attainment, and have fallen further over this period than mortality rates for those with higher levels of education.Many commentators have suggested that poor mortality outcomes can be attributed to contemporaneous levels of resources, particularly to slowly growing, stagnant, and even declining incomes; we evaluate this possibility, but find that it cannot provide a comprehensive explanation. In particular, the income profiles for blacks and Hispanics, whose mortality rates have fallen, are no better than those for whites. Nor is there any evidence in the European data that mortality trends match income trends, in spite of sharply different patterns of median income across countries after the Great Recession.We propose a preliminary but plausible story in which cumulative disadvantage from one birth cohort to the next, in the labor market, in marriage and child outcomes, and in health, is triggered by progressively worsening labor market opportunities at the time of entry for whites with low levels of education. This account, which fits much of the data, has the profoundly negative A data appendix and a zipped archive of all programs used to create the figures and tables in this paper are is available at https:// www.brookings.edu/bpea-articles/mortality-and-morbidity-in-the-21st-century/ HHS Public Access Author Manuscript Author ManuscriptAuthor ManuscriptAuthor Manuscript implication that policies, even ones that successfully improve earnings and jobs, or redistribute income, will take many years to reverse the mortality and morbidity increase, and that those in midlife now a...

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“…Others have asserted potential roles for rising income inequality, international trade, stagnant wages, increased unemployment or general social and economic decline(Stiglitz 2015;Meara and Skinner 2015;Pierce and Schott 2016).…”

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confidence: 99%

Deaths of Despair or Drug Problems?

Ruhm¹

2018

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for helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

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Losing ground at midlife in America

Cited by 43 publications

References 12 publications

The widening gender gap in marijuana use prevalence in the U.S. during a period of economic change, 2002–2014

The widening gender gap in marijuana use prevalence in the U.S. during a period of economic change, 2002–2014

Mortality and Morbidity in the 21st Century

Deaths of Despair or Drug Problems?

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