Socioeconomic and race/ethnic disparities in health have been well documented in the United States and other countries. Social position appears to have multiple effects on health outcomes that accumulate throughout life, with effects often differing by race/ethnicity. Because data requirements are large for studies seeking to disentangle these complex relationships, research has been seriously hampered, until recently, by a lack of adequate data. We propose to collect, document, and place in the public domain an important new resource for investigating the social and economic determinants of adult health and race and ethnic disparities in adult health. Specifically, we propose to re-interview adult respondents from the 2000-2001 Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A.FANS-1) and to collect extensive social, economic, and health data, as well as information on the physical and social environments in which they live and work. L.A.FANS-1 interviewed 2,548 adults living in 65 neighborhoods in Los Angeles County. Its unique design and sample population provides an important opportunity to investigate major questions in adult health disparities. In L.A.FANS-2/Adult, we propose to enhance significantly the utility of the L.A.FANS data for studies of health disparities by: (1) Replicating self-reported health measures from L.A.FANS- 1 (covering general health status, childhood health status, diagnosed chronic conditions, weight and height, and work limitations) and collecting new self-reports on disease treatment, treatment compliance, health behaviors, functional limitations, quality and quantity of sleep, health status """"""""vignettes,"""""""" and changes in health status since the first interview; (2) Collecting bioindicators of lung function, blood pressure, blood sugar, coagulation (fibrinogen), and inflammation (interleuken-6), anthropometry, and screeners for depression and anxiety; and (3) Expanding the data collected on adults' work conditions, stressful experiences, and social ties. L.A.FANS-2/Adult data will publicly released as quickly as possible once fieldwork is complete, to enable a wide range of researchers to conduct research.
| Bzostek, Sharon; Sastry, Narayan; Goldman, Noreen et al. (2016) Using vignettes to rethink Latino-white disparities in self-rated health. Soc Sci Med 149:46-65 |
| Bjornstrom, Eileen E S; Kuhl, Danielle C (2014) A different look at the epidemiological paradox: self-rated health, perceived social cohesion, and neighborhood immigrant context. Soc Sci Med 120:118-25 |
