Kwag Kyung Hwa, Jang Yuri, Rhew Sung Han, Chiriboga David A
Department of Aging and Mental Health Disparities, University of South Florida.
School of Aging Studies, University of South Florida.
Asian Am J Psychol. 2011 Jun;2(2):91-100. doi: 10.1037/a0023656.
This study explored how the physical and mental health of Korean American older adults were influenced by neighborhood characteristics (i.e., proportion of individuals living below the poverty level, proportion of individuals 65 years of age and older, and proportion of racial/ethnic minorities in the census block groups where each respondent lived). Health perceptions (i.e., the subjective appraisal of one's own health) and depressive symptoms were used as indicators of physical and mental health. Multilevel analyses were performed with 567 individuals (at Level 1) nested within 233 census block groups (at Level 2). After controlling for individual demographic and health characteristics, we found that neighborhood poverty predicted health perceptions. The results add to the growing literature on the influence of the social environment and suggest that neighborhood characteristics should be taken into consideration in developing community-based policies for racially/ethnically diverse populations.
本研究探讨了韩裔美国老年人的身心健康如何受到邻里特征的影响（即生活在贫困线以下的个体比例、65岁及以上的个体比例，以及每个受访者居住的普查街区组中的种族/族裔少数群体比例）。健康认知（即对自身健康的主观评价）和抑郁症状被用作身心健康的指标。对嵌套在233个普查街区组（第二层）中的567名个体（第一层）进行了多层次分析。在控制了个体人口统计学和健康特征后，我们发现邻里贫困可预测健康认知。这些结果进一步丰富了关于社会环境影响的文献，并表明在为种族/族裔多样化人群制定基于社区的政策时应考虑邻里特征。
