Health disparities among young American adults born after 1980 have grown substantially, according to a new study led by Hui Zheng, assistant professor of sociology at Ohio State University, that is published in the December issue of the American Sociological Review.
They suggest this is because most young people are generally healthy, and at this stage, disparities stay low. But as they age, some develop health problems and diseases, so disparities grow. But these fall off again in old age as sicker people die and healthy ones remain. In old age there may also be an effect from older people sharing similar health risk factors due to frailty, and there may also be an equalizing effect from health care usage and protection through Medicare coverage for the elderly.
The implication of these two findings is that the overall gap between the healthiest and the least healthy Americans will get bigger and bigger for the next ten or even twenty years, as the younger adults get older and replace previous generations.
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