Benefits gained, benefits lost: comparing baby boomers to other generations in a longitudinal cohort study of self-rated health

The Milbank Quarterly
Elizabeth M BadleyMonique A M Gignac

Abstract

POLICY POINTS: Despite beliefs that baby boomers are healthier than previous generations, we found no evidence that the health of baby boomers is substantially different from that of the previous or succeeding cohorts. The effects of increased education, higher income, and lower smoking rates on improving self-rated health were nearly counterbalanced by the adverse effect of increasing body mass index (BMI). Assumptions that baby boomers will require less health care as they age because of better education, more prosperity, and less propensity to smoke may not be realized because of increases in obesity. Baby boomers are commonly believed to be healthier than the previous generation. Using self-rated health (SRH) as an indicator of health status, this study examines the effects of age, period, and birth cohort on the trajectory of health across 4 generations: World War II (born between 1935 and 1944), older baby boomers (born between 1945 and 1954), younger baby boomers (born between 1955 and 1964), and Generation X (born between 1965 and 1974). We analyzed Canada's longitudinal National Population Health Survey 1994-2010 (n = 8,570 at baseline), using multilevel growth models to estimate the age trajectory of SRH by cohort, ac...Continue Reading

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Citations

Nov 2, 2015·Disease-a-month : DM·Melissa Lynn Cannon
Feb 16, 2017·The Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences·Mayilee CanizaresElizabeth M Badley
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Jun 8, 2017·International Journal for Equity in Health·William Ian Andrew BonnerMarwa Farag
Nov 13, 2018·Medical Care·Holly C FelixRobert Weech-Maldonado

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