The focus of my research in recent years is health inequality across the life course, especially the health differential between White and Black Americans. The view held for years by many scholars studying aging and minority health was described as “double jeopardy”—the combined hazards of racial and age discrimination place minority elders in a particularly disadvantageous position. Using longitudinal data from a national sample, I have challenged the double jeopardy hypothesis by showing that there is persistent health inequality over the life course. Moreover, my research points out that the double jeopardy hypothesis was premised on an ontogenetic fallacy that inaccurately portrayed growing older among minority groups (1996, Journal of Health and Social Behavior).

With support from the National Institute on Aging and the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities, I have been using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey I (NHANES I) and its Epidemiologic Follow-up Study to further examine health inequality. We have shown that the utility of self-reported morbidity, especially among African Americans, for predicting subsequent mortality (1999, American Sociological Review) as well as physical disability (2000, American Journal of Public Health). We also find that self-rated health is predictive of mortality for both White and African Americans, but only for the latter when applying time dependent covariates in event history models of self-rated health (2001, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences).

A second area of health inequality research concerns obesity and health. Using the 20-year follow-up of NHANES I and panel data from Americans’ Changing Lives (ACL), I have been studying the way in which overweight and obesity lead to adverse health outcomes across the life course. Some of our recent findings from this NIA-supported project are that once a person becomes obese, there are life-long consequences to upper- and lower-body disability, even if the subjects eventually lost weight (2002, American Journal of Public Health). We refer to this as the threshold effect: obesity marks a person’s health trajectory during adulthood, but there is no parallel risk from being overweight.

Other work on this body weight has examined the life course of severe obesity (2003, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences). We have found that childhood overweight substantially raises the risk of being severely obese (BMI > 35), thus suggesting the importance of a life course approach to body weight. The picture emerging from this line of work highlights the importance of cumulative disadvantage in shaping health inequality.

A third area of inquiry concerns the link between religion and health, which has largely shown benefits of religious participation. Most of our studies agree, but we have also found that religion is associated with some negative health outcomes, most notably higher body weight (1998, Review of Religious Research). Our more recent research has focused on the way in which people with personal or health problems turn to religion for consolation and support (2000, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion) or are hindered from formal religious participation (2001, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences).

Finally, it is very clear to me that my research program has been greatly enriched by working several Purdue University graduate students over the past decade. Although I cannot name all of them here, I would like to mention a few who continue to excel:
• Melissa Farmer, Ph.D., now on the faculty at the UCLA School of Public Health
• Kimberlee Holland, Ph.D., now on the faculty of Brigham Young University
• Jessica Kelley-Moore, Ph.D., now on the faculty of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County

At the current time, I am delighted to be working with Angela Cameron, Shalon Irving, Tariqah Nuriddin, Roland Thorpe, and Yunqing Li.

Further information about my research program may be gleaned from my vita or NIH biosketch. I welcome inquiries from persons considering graduate studies in sociology and/or gerontology.