Department of Nursing, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2013 Jul;22(7):617-24. doi: 10.1089/jwh.2012.4143. Epub 2013 May 6.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has set national goals to eliminate health disparities by race, sex, and socioeconomic status. Progress in meeting these goals has been mixed. This paper provides a different view on the evolving health of U.S. women by examining a sample of daughters and their mothers.
The aim was to determine if the health risk profiles of daughters (born 1975-1992) were different from their mothers (born 1957-1964) measured when both were between the ages of 17 and 24 years. The U.S.-based National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and associated Children and Young Adult Surveys were used. The sample was 2411 non-Hispanic white and African American girls born to 1701 mothers. Outcomes were height, weight, body mass index (BMI), age of menarche, and self-reported health.
In both races, daughters were taller but entered adulthood at greater risk for the development of chronic illness than their mothers. Racial differences were greater in the daughters' generation than in the mothers'. Whites in both generations experienced educational differences in health based upon the mother's educational level, with fewer years of maternal education associated with poorer health. African Americans of both generations experienced differences by maternal education in self-reported health. However, when African American daughters were compared with their mothers, daughters born to college educated women gained more weight and had higher BMI and earlier menarche than did daughters born to high school dropouts.
Health deterioration across generations in both races suggests that much work is needed to meet Healthy People 2020 goals of health equity.
美国疾病控制与预防中心设定了国家目标，以消除种族、性别和社会经济地位方面的健康差异。在实现这些目标方面，进展喜忧参半。本文通过考察一组女儿及其母亲的样本，提供了一种看待美国女性健康状况不断变化的不同视角。
目的是确定女儿（1975-1992 年出生）的健康风险状况是否与其母亲（1957-1964 年出生）不同，这些母亲是在 17 至 24 岁时测量的。研究使用了基于美国的 1979 年全国青年纵向调查及相关的儿童和青年成人调查。样本包括 2411 名非西班牙裔白人和非裔美国女孩及其 1701 名母亲。结果指标为身高、体重、体重指数（BMI）、初潮年龄和自我报告的健康状况。
在两个种族中，女儿的身高更高，但成年后罹患慢性病的风险也高于其母亲。在女儿这一代，种族差异大于母亲那一代。在两个世代中，白人都因母亲的教育程度而在健康方面存在教育差异，母亲受教育程度越低，健康状况越差。在两个世代中，非裔美国人都因母亲的教育程度而在自我报告的健康状况方面存在差异。然而，当将非裔美国女儿与其母亲进行比较时，与高中毕业的母亲生育的女儿相比，与高中辍学的母亲生育的女儿体重增加更多，BMI 更高，初潮年龄更早。
两个种族的代际健康状况恶化表明，要实现“2020 年健康人”计划的健康公平目标，还有很多工作要做。
