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The United States is one of the world's wealthiest nations, yet the health of average Americans lags behind that of citizens in other developed countries. The huge amounts we spend on health care are not buying our population good health. The reason is a widening gap between the health of rich and poor Americans.

When I'm 54 : Working Longer Starts Younger than We Think / Beth C. Truesdale, Lisa F. Berkman, and Alexandra Mitukiewicz -- The Geography of Retirement / Courtney C. Coile -- The European Context : Declining Health but Rising Labor Force Participation among the Middle-Aged / Axel Börsch-Supan, Irene Ferrari, Giacomo Pasini, and Luca Salerno -- Planning for the "Expected Unexpected" : Work and Retirement in the U.S. after the COVID-19 Pandemic Shock / Richard B. Freeman -- The Link between Health and Working Longer : Disparities in Work Capacity / Ben Berger, Italo Lopez-Garcia, Nicole Maestas, and Kathleen Mullen -- The Psychology of Working Longer / Margaret E. Beier and Meghan K. Davenport -- Forecasting Employment of the Older Population / Michael D. Hurd and Susann Rohwedder -- Dying with Your Boots On : The Realities of Working Longer in Low-Wage Work / Mary Gatta and Jessica Horning -- Ad Hoc, Limited, and Reactive : How Firms Respond to an Aging Workforce / Peter Berg and Matthew M. Piszczek -- How Caregiving for Parents Reduces Women's Employment : Patterns Across Sociodemographic Groups / Sean Fahle and Kathleen McGarry -- Working Longer in an Age of Rising Economic Inequality / Gary Burtless -- How Does Social Security Reform Indecision Affect Younger Cohorts? / John B. Shoven, Sita Nataraj Slavov, and John G. Watson -- The Biased Politics of "Working Longer" / Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson -- Conclusion : What Is the Way Forward? / Lisa F. Berkman, Beth C. Truesdale, and Alexandra Mitukiewicz.

Do places make a difference to people's health and well-being? This book presents a state-of-the-art account of the theories, methods, and empirical evidence linking neighbourhood conditions to population health.

Social epidemiology is the study of how the social world influences - and in many cases defines - the fundamental determinants of health. This second edition elevates the field again, first by codifying the last decade of research, then by extending it to examine how public policies impact health

This paper examines whether maternity leave policies have an effect on women's mental health in older age. We link data for women aged 50 years and above from countries in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) to data on maternity leave legislation from 1960 onwards. We use a difference-in-differences approach that exploits changes over time within countries in the duration and compensation of maternity leave benefits, linked to the year women were giving birth to their first child at age 16 to 25. We compare late-life depressive symptom scores (measured with a 12-item version of the Euro-D scale) of mothers who were in employment in the period around the birth of their first child to depression scores of mothers who were not in employment in the period surrounding the birth of a first child, and therefore did not benefit directly from maternity leave benefits. Our findings suggest that a more generous maternity leave during the birth of a first child is associated with a reduced score of 0.38 points in the Euro-D depressive symptom scale in old age.

Front Matter -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- Introduction -- Introduction to the Subject -- What We Know: The Tantalizing Potential -- Early Childhood Interventions: Theories of Change, Empirical Findings, and Research Priorities -- Why Exploiting This Knowledge Will Be Essential to Achieving Health Improvements in the 21st Century -- Refocus -- Research to Understand the Mechanisms Through Which Social and Behavioral Factors Influence Health -- Investments in Longitudinal Surveys, Databases, Advanced Statistical Research, and Computation Technology -- Investments in Research and Intervention at the Community Level -- Reactor Panel for Research Funders -- Wrap-up -- Appendix A: Symposium Agenda.

Lack of social integration predicts coronary heart disease mortality in prospective studies; however, the biological pathways that may be responsible are poorly understood. The specific aims of this study were to examine whether social networks are associated with serum concentrations of the inflammatory markers interleukin-6 (IL-6), C-reactive protein (CRP), soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1). Participants in the Framingham Study attending examinations from 1998 to 2001 (n=3267) were eligible for inclusion in the study. Social networks were assessed using the Berkman–Syme Social Network Index (SNI). Concentrations of IL-6, CRP, sICAM-1 and MCP-1 were measured in fasting serum samples. Multivariable linear regression analyses were used to assess the association of social networks with inflammatory markers adjusting for potential confounders including age, smoking, blood pressure, total:HDL cholesterol ratio, body mass index, lipid-lowering and antihypertensive medication, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression and socioeconomic status. Results found that the SNI was significantly inversely associated with IL-6 in men (p=0·03) after adjusting for potential confounders. In age-adjusted analyses, social networks also were significantly inversely associated with IL-6 for women (p=0·03) and were marginally to modestly associated with CRP and sICAM-1 for men (p=0·08 and 0·02, respectively), but these associations were not significant in the multivariate analyses. In conclusion, social networks were found to be inversely associated with interleukin-6 levels in men. The possibility that inflammatory markers may be potential mediators between social integration and coronary heart disease merits further investigation.

SummaryPrior studies examining the association between self-reported experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination and obesity have had mixed results and primarily been cross-sectional. This study tests the hypothesis that an increase in self-reported experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination predicts gains in waist circumference and body mass index in Black and White women and men over eight years. In race/ethnicity- and gender-stratified models, this study examined whether change in self-reported experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination predicts changes in waist circumference and body mass index over time using a fixed-effects regression approach in SAS statistical software, providing control for both measured and unmeasured time-invariant covariates. Between 1992–93 and 2000–01, self-reported experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination decreased among 843 Black women (75% to 73%), 601 Black men (80% to 77%), 893 White women (30% to 23%) and 856 White men (28% to 23%). In fixed-effects regression models, controlling for all time-invariant covariates, social desirability bias, and changes in education and parity (women only) over time, an increase in self-reported experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination over time was significantly associated with an increase in waist circumference (β=1.09, 95% CI: 0.00–2.19, p=0.05) and an increase in body mass index (β=0.67, 95% CI: 0.19–1.16, p=0.007) among Black women. No associations were observed among Black men and White women and men. These findings suggest that an increase in self-reported experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination may be associated with increases in waist circumference and body mass index among Black women over time.