Social Determinants of Health
Grandparent Caregivers: Positive Well-being and Life Satisfaction
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Freda Coleman Reed
Globally, the number of grandparents providing support to assist with raising grandchildren or as their custodial parent has grown significantly. Studies demonstrate family crises often necessitate grandparents providing support or assuming an oft-time parenting role to sustain family functionality for their grandchildren. Often time examination of this role assumption occurs through the lens of burden and the deleterious familial, psychological, and medical outcomes for grandparent caregivers. In contrast, the present research explored grandparent caregivers’ choice to parents, parental stress, resources, spirituality, and social supports contribution to grandparent caregivers’ experience of positive well-being, specifically life satisfaction. Study findings suggest perception of adequate resources and choice to parent as the strongest predictors of grandparent caregivers’ positive life satisfaction. Implications for practice, policy, and research are provided. Methods to increase and support positive grandparent caregiver well-being will be discussed.
Neighborhood Social and Environmental Characteristics and Their Associations with a Multi-dimensional Measure of Well-being
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ben Chrisinger, Julia Gustafson, Sandra Winter
Individual well-being is a complex concept that varies among and between individuals and is impacted by individual, interpersonal, community, organizational, policy and environmental factors. This research explored associations between select environmental characteristics measured at the ZIP code level and individual well-being. 2,292 participants from the San Francisco Bay Area (mean age=44.7 years, mean household size=3.0 persons, 70.9% female, 60.5% white) completed the Stanford WELL for Life Scale, a 76-question online survey that asks about 10 domains of well-being: social connectedness, lifestyle behaviors, stress/resilience, emotional/mental health, purpose/meaning, physical health, sense of self, finances, spirituality/religiosity, and exploration/creativity. Neighborhood (ZIP-level) characteristics were collected from secondary sources: indices for walkability, crime, and pollution; median income; percent unemployment, race/ethnicity, and commute time > one hour; and number of healthcare and recreation facilities. Unadjusted linear mixed models were fit to assess relationships between neighborhood measures and individual well-being. Preliminary results indicate that overall well-being was significantly and positively associated with income (p<0.001) and racial/ethnic makeup (p<0.05), and negatively related with crime (p<0.005) and unemployment (p<0.053). The lifestyle behaviors domain was significantly associated with the most neighborhood characteristics, while the purpose/meaning domain was not significantly associated with any neighborhood measure. Additional, adjusted analyses will help contextualize findings within other known individual demographic characteristics. These early insights suggest that structural socioeconomic neighborhood factors influence individuals’ overall self-rated well-being, though much variation exists among the well-being domains. Further research is needed to determine targets for intervention at the neighborhood level that may improve individual well-being.
Preliminary Investigation of Prehypertension in Taxi Drivers of Jilin, China
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Charles D. Sands, Linn Carothers, Charles D. Sands III, Jin Shu
Limited data exist on the health status of taxi drivers in Jilin City, China. Jilin is a city of ~5 million people in the northeast part of China. Taxi drivers (N = 309) were recruited for free health screenings to the Bo Hua Hospital via radio announcements and print advertisements. Taxi drivers who reported to the hospital and volunteered were assessed in the following areas: Blood pressure, height, weight, alcohol consumption habits, smoking habits, and exercise habits. Eighty percent were male (avg age 41); twenty percent were female (avg age 43). 65% of the male taxi drivers admit to alcohol use; whereas 94% of the female taxi drivers do not (p<0.0001). Male SBPs were significantly higher than female SBPs, with men averaging 127 +/- 1 mmHg and women around 117 +/- 2 mmHg (p<0.0001). Furthermore, there was a significant association of smoking and drinking (p<0.001) among the drivers. Both male and female systolic and diastolic blood pressures differed significantly when compared using independent t-tests (p< 0.0001) and by comparing resample confidence intervals - with males exhibiting the highest levels of blood pressure. 75.3% of the males were prehypertensive and 46.7% the females were prehypertensive (defined as >120/80 mmHg and <140/90 mmHg). Additionally, 24.7% of the males and 14.5% of the female taxi drivers exhibited hypertension (> 140/90 mmHg). Overall, the health status of taxi drivers in Jilin, China appears to be relatively positive. The hospitals intention now is to provide specific health education interventions based on results collected in this study.
