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▪ Abstract  Is living in a relatively poor community bad for your health; is living in a relatively affluent community good for your health; or is it only your own socioeconomic position that matters to your health no matter where you live? This article (a) presents a conceptual model suggesting the basic pathways that may link community socioeconomic context to individual health, (b) reviews recent research that has examined whether the socioeconomic context of communities impacts the health of individual residents, over and above their own socioeconomic position, (c) discusses conceptual and methodological challenges of current research, and (d) suggests new directions for future research such as the importance of more closely examining how age, race, gender, and individual socioeconomic position may moderate the impact of community socioeconomic context on individual health and mortality.

Abstract

Objectives
To characterize the effect of the actual and potential ability to get rides from others on older adults' driving reduction at 3-year follow-up in the United States.


Methods
We analyzed National Health and Aging Trends Study data from community-dwelling drivers in 2015 (unweighted n = 5,102). We used weighted logistic regression models to estimate whether getting rides from others in 2015 was associated with older adults increasing the number of driving behaviors they avoided, decreasing the frequency with which they drove, or not driving at 3-year follow-up after adjusting for biopsychosocial variables. We also measured presence of social network members living nearby including household and non-household members and estimated associated odds of driving reduction at 3-year follow-up.


Results
Older adults who got rides from others in 2015 had greater odds of reporting no longer driving at 3-year follow-up compared to those who did not get rides (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.53, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.11–2.11). We found no statistically significant association between older adults living with others or having more nearby confidantes outside their household and their odds of reducing driving at 3-year follow-up.


Discussion
These findings suggest that getting rides from others plays an important role in the transition to non-driving for older adults. Future research should examine whether other aspects of social networks (e.g., type, quality, and closer proximity) might also be key modifiable coping factors for older adults transitioning to non-driving.

Objective. To examine whether public support for government intervention to address health disparities varies when disparities are framed in terms of different social groups.Method. A survey experiment was embedded in a public opinion poll of Wisconsin adults. Respondents were randomly assigned to answer questions about either racial, economic, or education disparities in health. Ordered logit regression analyses examine differences across experimental conditions in support for government intervention to address health disparities.Results. Health disparities between economic groups received the broadest support for government intervention, while racial disparities in health received the least support for government intervention. These differences were explained by variation in how respondents' perceived and evaluated health disparities between different social groups.Conclusion. Efforts to garner public support for policies aimed at eliminating health disparities should attend to the politics of social diversity, including the public's disparate perceptions and evaluations of health disparities defined by different social groups.