Langa Neema, Ncho Josepha-Faith, Carter Faith
Departments of Sociology and African American Studies, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA.
Psychology and Biology, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA.
J Women Aging. 2025 May-Jun;37(3):222-235. doi: 10.1080/08952841.2025.2484845. Epub 2025 Apr 27.
Scarce studies have examined an intersection of women's fertility and education and their impacts on racially stratified women's later-life health. This study examined the health outcomes of women aged sixty-five and older by comparing Black and non-Black women. It focused on analyzing how the number of children a woman had, and her level of education, can constitutively impact her later-life health outcomes. We used data from the National Health Interview Survey (2010-2018) and the intersectionality and fundamental causes of disease theories. Logistic regression findings suggested that being Black, having a lower education status, and having two or more children were significantly associated with higher activity limitation, disability, and poorer self-rated health as compared to their counterparts. The significantly higher odds interaction effects were found between race and education, as well as race and parity, indicating the stronger influence of lower levels of education and a larger number of children on activity limitations and disability for older Blacks than non-Black women. These interactions were weaker in terms of self-rated health status. The three-way interactions between race, fertility, and education were significantly lower. This indicates weaker or smaller gains associated with high fertility and lower education on disability and activity limitations status among Blacks than non-Black older women. This new study suggests a unique contribution of Black women's fertility history as an additional determinant of their later life health when intersected with other upstream factors like education.
鲜有研究探讨女性生育与教育的交叉点及其对不同种族女性晚年健康的影响。本研究通过比较黑人女性和非黑人女性，考察了65岁及以上女性的健康状况。研究重点分析了女性的子女数量和教育水平如何从本质上影响其晚年的健康状况。我们使用了来自国家健康访谈调查（2010 - 2018年）的数据以及交叉性和疾病基本病因理论。逻辑回归结果表明，与非黑人女性相比，黑人、教育程度较低以及育有两个或更多子女与更高的活动受限、残疾率以及更差的自评健康状况显著相关。在种族与教育以及种族与生育之间发现了显著更高的交互作用效应，这表明较低的教育水平和较多的子女数量对老年黑人女性的活动受限和残疾的影响比对非黑人女性更强。就自评健康状况而言，这些交互作用较弱。种族、生育和教育之间的三方交互作用显著较低。这表明与非黑人老年女性相比，高生育率和低教育水平对黑人女性残疾和活动受限状况的影响较弱或收益较小。这项新研究表明，黑人女性的生育史与教育等其他上游因素交叉时，作为其晚年健康的一个额外决定因素具有独特作用。
