 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
|
| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Ashley S. Love, MS, MPH, Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University, 630 W. 168th St. PH19, New York, NY 10032, 917 602 6012, si22@columbia.edu, Steven M. Albert, PhD, MSc, Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center, Columbia University, PH-19, 630 West 168th St., New York, NY 07666, Alfred Ashford, MD, Department of Medicine, Harlem Hospital Center, MLK Pavilion, New York, NY 11733, and Linda F. Cushman, PhD, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, Center for Population and Family Health, 60 Haven Avenue, B2, New York, NY 10032.
Objectives: The goal of our study was to compare health-related quality of life (HQOL) measures between older black men of Harlem and older black men of US to analyze health disparities that exist between these men. Methods: We used a sample of older black men in Harlem Men's Health Study (n=193) and a sample of older black men in Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (n=919) with age restricted to 50-74 years old. Receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC) was used to compare the validity of the HQOL mental health measure to Center for Epidemiological Studies in Depression (CES-D) in order to obtain a cut-off day for the HQOL mental health measure. Results: About 43% of older black men in Harlem reported fair-poor health while about 31% of the older black men in the BRFSS reported fair-poor health (X2= 16.01, p=0.0001). Older black men in Harlem had higher mean days of poor mental health(t=24.19, p=0.001), poor physical health, and depression in a month than the older black men in the BRFSS sample. Regardless of samples, subjects who had low level of education showed poorer health. The ROC results showed that one or more days of poor mental health days in a month discriminated subjects who would score 16 or higher on CES-D. The sensitivity was 0.71 and specificity was 0.833. The area of the ROC curve was 0.80 with standard error of 0.035 with 95% confidence interval of 0.731-0.868. Conclusion: These disparities in health among older blacks showed that environmental or neighborhood factors as well as socioeconomic factors were associated with health disparities when race was held constant.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: African American, Mental Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.