MA Health and Depression

In the previous blog it was mentioned how cumulative disadvantage could affect the elderly MA by placing them further into poverty. Not only is this a concern for their socioeconomic life, but for their overall health as cumulative disadvantage can affect their outlook on life. In a study conducted it was found that Mexican American showed a greater tendency to exhibit a fatalistic and nihilistic attitude and that this may contribute to limiting activities that would improve their health such as proper usage of health care. (Olson 79)  It should not be surprising that a group of people who have consistently found themselves in the poorest of conditions and the reapers of what cumulative disadvantage has to offer should become fatalistic. This fatalistic and nihilistic attitude is of tremendous importance within an aging MA community since age often comes with illnesses that may be exacerbated by such an outlook on life. In a study done on Mexican Americans suffering from diabetes, it was found that “…presence of concomitant depressive symptoms among older diabetic Mexican Americans is associated with a substantially greater health burden than is seen among diabetic individuals without depression…”. (Black 56-64) This study shows how a culture can influence the outlook of individuals and affect, negatively, how their body deals with illness. If a person is elderly, in poverty, and is also from a culture where fatalistic and nihilistic attitudes prevail, then it is reasonable to say that these people need to be assisted and educated in order to keep them from suffering needlessly, and costing themselves and the health care system more resources then may be necessary. Again education is of primary importance as it was also cited within another study of Mexican Americans with diabetes that showed that “…subjects with at least some college education had a lower incidence of diabetes than those with less than a high school education”. (Haffner)

Black, S A. "Increased health burden associated with comorbid depression in older diabetic Mexican Americans. Results from the Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly survey. ." Diabetes Care. 22. (1999): 56-64. Print

Haffner, MD, MPH, Steven M., , et al. "Increased Incidence of Type II Diabetes Mellitus in Mexican Americans." DIABETES CARE. 14.2 (1991): 102-07. Print.

Olson, Laura K. . Age through Ethnic Lenses. Oxford: Rowman  Littlefield, 2001. 79 Print.

MA Cumulative Disadvantage

There can be either cumulative advantage or cumulative disadvantage. Too often MA are the unfortunate recipients of cumulative disadvantage. The idea of cultural disadvantage is that a person – usually those from poor working class backgrounds – finds that very early in life they acquire a job that may lack benefits, or a pension plan that, over time, can accumulate and place that person at a socioeconomic disadvantage when compared to someone else who may have been fortunate enough to acquire a better job with greater benefits. (Stoller and Gibson 127) However, cumulative disadvantage need not only occur in the realm of employment. Cumulative disadvantage can begin when a person is required to attend an inferior school, born to parents who are not fluent in the dominant language, must eat foods that are poor in nutritional value, or who may just have been raised in a household with abusive parents. For the elderly, cumulative disadvantage is of significant concern as their cumulative disadvantage can place them in a situation of tremendous need. “The worst off one-fifth of the elderly (disproportionately unmarried women, minorities, and the physically impaired) receives 5.5% of the elderly's total resources, whereas the best off one-fifth receives 46%.Equalizing effects of Social Security are more than outweighed by private pensions, asset income, and other sources”. (Shea) With the aging of the body, and retirement inevitable, cumulative disadvantage can place the elderly in great jeopardy of living in poverty, or greater poverty if they are already in poverty. “Forty-seven percent of older Mexican Americans live below or near the poverty level (Parra and Espino); these elders tend to be female, recent immigrants, and illiterate in English and to have the least education”. (Suarez and Ramirez)

Crystal S. Shea D. Cumulative advantage, cumulative disadvantage, and inequality among elderly people. Gerontologist. 1990;30:437–443. [Pub Med]

Parra, E.O., and D.V. Espino, 1192 “Barriers to Health Care Access Faced by Elderly Mexican Americans.” Pp. 171-77 in Hispanic Aged Mental Health. Ed. T.L. Brink. New York: Haworth

Stoller, Eleanor Palo, and Rose Campbell Gibson. Worlds Of Difference. 3. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press, 2000. 127-281. Print.

Suares, L., A. G. Ramirez. 1998. :Hispanic/Latino Health and Disease.” Pp. 115-37 in Promoting Health in Multicultural Populations: A Handbook for Practitioners, ed. R M. Huff and M.V. Kline. Thousand Oaks, Calif,: Sage