10.2 Data from Ferraro et al. (2016)

Let’s take another look at the data from Ferraro, Schafer, and Wilkinson (2016) examining physical health in adulthood using a count regression model.

Data are drawn from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS). MIDUS contains a battery of retrospective questions concerning childhood disadvantage, as well as extensive measures of adult risks and resources. Although the authors use data from both waves of MIDUS in the paper, here we focus only on their first model of adult health outcomes, which takes into account both childhood disadvantage and the mediating effects of later life resources and risk behaviors.

Outcome Variable

  • morbidityw1: Self-reported occurrence of 31 diseases or health conditions

Explanatory Variables

  • health: Adolescent health problems are measured by self-rated physical and mental health at age 16.
  • age: Age at time of Wave 1 interview.
  • female: Logical indicating if the subject identified as female.
  • smoke_dose: Lifetime smoking is calculated from information reported by respondents: age when started smoking, year stopped (for former smokers), and average number of cigarettes smoked daily. Using a yearly metric, lifetime smoking is the product of years smoked and annual number of cigarettes, divided by 10,000 (see Footnote 11, p. 130).
  • heavydr2: The measurement of heavy drinking is sex differentiated and tapped respondents’ period of greatest lifetime consumption: five or more drinks per day for men and four or more drinks for women.
  • obese: Obesity, dummy variable coded 1 if body mass index [kg/m2] > 30.
  • fampos: Family support as measured by four items reflecting the presence of positive relationship characteristics.
  • friendpos: Friend support as measured by four items reflecting the presence of positive relationship characteristics.
  • abuse_rare: Physical or Emotional Child abuse by parents is categorized by frequency of abuse. abuse_rare indicates respondent rarely experience one or both types of abuse. The reference category is never having experienced emotional or physical abuse.
  • abuse_freq1: abuse_frequency1 indicates respondents frequently (sometimes or often) experienced one type of abuse during childhood. The reference category is never having experienced emotional or physical abuse.
  • abuse_freq2: abuse_frequency2 indicates respondents frequently experienced both types of abuse during childhood. The reference category is never having experienced emotional or physical abuse.

References

Ferraro, Kenneth F., Markus H. Schafer, and Lindsay R. Wilkinson. 2016. “Childhood Disadvantage and Health Problems in Middle and Later Life: Early Imprints on Physical Health?” American Sociological Review 81 (1): 107–33. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122415619617.