Race, Aging, and Functional Health

Abstract

This article presents evidence of a Black/White crossover in functional health. Its existence supports the hypothesis, based on selective survival, that older members of socially disadvantaged populations are relatively more physiologically robust and thus exhibit relatively favorable functional capacities. Longitudinal data on 5,150 persons 70 years of age and older shows that within young-old age groups, Blacks are more likely to experience functional status decline over a 6-year period than Whites, whereas within oldest-old age groups, Blacks are less likely to experience decline. The authors also provide confirmation or modification of several hypotheses implicit in the literature on aging, race, and functional health. They find support for the hypothesis that racial differences in age-related changes in mean levels of functional health (i.e., self-care capacity and physical functioning) are age dependent, but do not find support for the hypothesis that social class fully accounts for racial differences in functional status change.