Multiple Jeopardy or Multiple Resources?

Abstract

The debate over the usefulness of the multiple jeopardy concept is presented. From one point of view minority women, poor women, and women who live alone are at risk of ill health as they age. Another point of view would suggest that minority women and poor women use personal, familial, and community resources to create positive outcomes and that research needs to be directed toward understanding the resources and strategies they use. In a sample of women age 60 and older in Tennessee a saturated logistic regression model was used to determine the effects of living arrangements, education, age, and race on self-reported health. Odds ratios, representing the likelihood of reporting poor or fair health, were determined. Women without high school educations were more likely to report poor or fair health irrespective of combiiations of age, race, or living arrangements. Men in the sample do not show this pattern. We need to understand more about how older women use personal and other resources to affect posit...