There exists an undue burden of health problems among racial/ethnic minorities that is well documented across most categories of morbidity and mortality. Less clear is the extent to which this burden is attributable to other factors, the most significant of which are socioeconomic-related. This study examines the role of individual- and neighborhood-level socioeconomic characteristics over time in predicting adult health outcomes, and in explaining racial/ethnic variations in these outcomes. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) are combined with census-tract data to address the following study aims: 1) to characterize the relationship between socioeconomic trajectory and adult health; 2) to determine if socioeconomic trajectory has a differential effect on adult health across racial/ethnic groups; and, 3) to determine how neighborhood-level socioeconomic factors modify the relationship between race/ethnicity and health. This study more fully describes the socioeconomic factors underlying the race/ethnicity and health relationship, thus clarifying how residual differences are attributable to race/ethnicity-based factors (e.g. discrimination, culture). Further, this study addresses the dynamic relationship between individual and environment, and its impact on health. Understanding how environment impacts health at the individual level, either directly or indirectly through other factors, can inform policy makers on the role of community- versus individual-enhancing interventions in addressing disease incidence and subsequent well-being.
