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Title: Does Literacy Predict Self-Rated Health and Chronic Illness in Midlife?
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Bennett, Ian M.
Mykyta, Laryssa
Elo, Irma T.
Does Literacy Predict Self-Rated Health and Chronic Illness in Midlife?
Presented: Dallas, TX, Population Association of America Meetings, April 2010
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB); Educational Attainment; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Illnesses; Life Course; Literacy; Mortality

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This paper contributes to the literature on literacy and health across the life course. Literacy is associated with a range of poor health-related outcomes, including mortality among older adults in the United States. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) 1979, we examine whether literacy assessed at ages 16-24 is independently associated with poor/fair self-rated health status and chronic conditions at midlife. Results from logistic regression analyses reveal that respondents with low literacy (<7th Reading Grade Level (RGL)) had significantly higher odds of reporting fair/poor self-rated health compared to those with high literacy (>=12th grade RGL) even after controlling for socio-demographic variables, including educational attainment. Although low literacy also exhibited significant bivariate association with chronic illness, neither literacy nor educational attainment retained a significant association with chronic disease in the fully adjusted model. Together these results indicate that literacy contributes to the risk of poor/fair self-rated health status in mid-life independent of educational attainment and poverty history. The lack of association between chronic illness and literacy may be a result of the age of the sample for whom cardiovascular health is not yet a major factor.
Bibliography Citation
Bennett, Ian M., Laryssa Mykyta and Irma T. Elo. "Does Literacy Predict Self-Rated Health and Chronic Illness in Midlife?" Presented: Dallas, TX, Population Association of America Meetings, April 2010.