Health of Aging Mexicans on Both Sides of the Border

HEALTH OF AGING MEXICANS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BORDER. PROJECT SUMMARY. Aging in the United States is increasingly contingent on the health of adults from historically-disadvantaged groups. The Mexican-origin population is one of the fastest growing segments of US elderly and one facing many disadvantages, both from experiences prior to immigration and by hardship experienced since immigration. The accumulation of decades of poor working and living conditions and poor access to health care have likely led to the particularly problematic physical and mental health problems observed in this population in old age, despite exhibiting “paradoxically” low cardiovascular mortality risks. These problems may have deteriorated further due to contemporary declines in the conditions that facilitate the social inclusion of immigrants and their descendants. The impact of these changes on older Latinos and their support networks is essentially unknown. The health impacts of changes in immigration-related climate, policies, and practices also likely affects aging populations in Mexico. One in five older adults in Mexico have previous migration experience in the U.S. Many older Mexican adults depend on economic, social, and emotional support from relatives living in the U.S., particularly their adult children. These family support networks have been disrupted by e.g., the deportation and unplanned return of circa 2 million Mexican immigrants from the United States over the last 15 years. This project examines how changes to migration patterns and policies shape aging in the Mexican-origin population on both the U.S. and Mexico. Using a novel, binational approach that jointly considers different forms of migration-related selection, mortality and proxy selection, and several kinds of unobserved heterogeneity, we examine how the physical, cognitive, and mental health of older adults has changed over time as a function of their migration experiences. We analyze rich longitudinal data from the 2006-2018 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) in the United States and the 2001-2018 Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) in Mexico using several ancillary datasets to enhance the measurement of different dimensions of immigrant social inclusion (ISI). We have three aims. First, we estimate the association between cumulative disadvantage and chronic mental, physical, and cognitive health and mortality. Second, we examine the contribution of spatiotemporal variation in attitudes, policies, and practices influencing ISI to changes in mental and physical health among older adults in the US. Third, we assess how changes in the location and support younger adult children provide to elderly parents living in the United States and Mexico affect parental mental and physical health.