Widowhood and mortality: gender, race/ethnicity, and the role of economic resources.

PURPOSE

We examine widowhood effects on mortality across gender and race-ethnicity, with attention to variation in the mediating role of economic resources.

METHODS

Data were drawn from the Health and Retirement Study (1992-2016). The analytic sample included 34,777 respondents aged 51 years and older who contributed 208,470 person-period records. Discrete-time hazard models were estimated to predict the odds of death among white men, black men, Hispanic men, white women, black women, and Hispanic women separately. The Karlson-Holm-Breen analysis was conducted to examine the mediating role of economic resources across groups.

RESULTS

Across all gender and racial-ethnic subgroups, widowhood effects on mortality were largest for Hispanic men. Black women and Hispanic women also suffered stronger effects of widowhood on mortality than white women. For both men and women, economic resources were an important pathway through which widowhood increased mortality risk for whites and blacks but not for Hispanics.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings highlight that gender and race-ethnicity intersect with widowhood status to disadvantage some groups more than others. It is important to explore the complex pathways that contribute to the higher mortality risk of racial-ethnic minorities, especially Hispanic men, after widowhood so that effective interventions can be implemented to reduce those risks.