This application was initially submitted as an R29 FIRST Award, and is being re-submitted as an R01 in response to Program Announcement, PA-97-065 (NIA) entitled, """"""""Social Cognition and Aging."""""""" The goal of this project is to determine how individual risk perceptions influence health behaviors among the near-elderly (51-61) and decisions regarding wealth holdings among the elderly (70+). Among the near-elderly, the following health behaviors will be studied: the use of preventive services (mammography, prostate screening, and cholesterol screening), weight loss and exercise. The preventive services are designed to reduce mortality from cancer and heart disease. Weight loss and exercise are both preventive measures as well as mitigators of harm that results from health shocks. Expanding the use of these preventive and mitigating measures are important to reduce morbidity and mortality from heart disease and cancer. Among the elderly, the behavior of interest relates to asset accumulation/dissaving, specifically focusing on housing decisions. The specific decisions will be selling a house, and changes in housing wealth holdings. The two decisions will be analyzed because housing assets likely have fewer measurement errors, and because housing is the major component of wealth for most elderly persons. Housing decisions are important from a policy perspective because they may represent precautionary savings to finance long-term care, a substantial risk the elderly face. The proposed conceptual model is an extension of the common Bayesian learning model whereby prior risk perceptions are updated on the basis of information. Our model holds that updated risk perceptions, in turn, influence behavior. Risk perceptions will be estimated as enodogenous explanatory variables simultaneously with health behaviors among the near-elderly and housing decisions among the elderly. The panel structure of the data bases to be used (4 waves of Health and Retirement Study; 3 waves of Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old) will allow for the modeling of behaviors in time 3 or 4 as a function of changes in risk perceptions regarding longevity and of needing nursing home care between waves 1 and 2 and 1 and 3.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01AG015868-01A1
Application #
2893376
Study Section
Social Sciences and Population Study Section (SSP)
Program Officer
Elias, Jeffrey W
Project Start
1999-09-15
Project End
2002-08-31
Budget Start
1999-09-15
Budget End
2000-08-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
1999
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Duke University
Department
Administration
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
071723621
City
Durham
State
NC
Country
United States
Zip Code
27705
Taylor Jr, Donald H; Hoenig, Helen (2006) Access to health care services for the disabled elderly. Health Serv Res 41:743-58
Ostbye, Truls; Taylor Jr, Donald H; Yancy Jr, William S et al. (2005) Associations between obesity and receipt of screening mammography, Papanicolaou tests, and influenza vaccination: results from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old (AHEAD) Study. Am J Public Health 95:1623-30
Weng, Haoling H; Bastian, Lori A; Taylor Jr, Donald H et al. (2004) Number of children associated with obesity in middle-aged women and men: results from the health and retirement study. J Womens Health (Larchmt) 13:85-91
Ostbye, Truls; Taylor, Donald H (2004) The effect of smoking on years of healthy life (YHL) lost among middle-aged and older Americans. Health Serv Res 39:531-52
Ostbye, Truls; Greenberg, Gary N; Taylor Jr, Donald H et al. (2003) Screening mammography and Pap tests among older American women 1996-2000: results from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old (AHEAD). Ann Fam Med 1:209-17
Ostbye, Truls; Taylor, Donald H; Lee, Ann Marie M et al. (2003) Racial differences in influenza vaccination among older Americans 1996-2000: longitudinal analysis of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old (AHEAD) survey. BMC Public Health 3:41
Taylor Jr, Donald H; Van Scoyoc, Lynn; Hawley, Sarah Tropman (2002) Health insurance and mammography: would a Medicare buy-in take us to universal screening? Health Serv Res 37:1469-86
Ostbye, Truls; Taylor, Donald Hugh; Jung, Sang-Hyuk (2002) A longitudinal study of the effects of tobacco smoking and other modifiable risk factors on ill health in middle-aged and old Americans: results from the Health and Retirement Study and Asset and Health Dynamics among the Oldest Old survey. Prev Med 34:334-45