Aging and health in the Americas: Past, present and future research on the U.S. Hispanic and Mexican Populations

This chapter examines the distinct cultural and political contexts in which Mexicans and Mexican Americans age. We begin with an overview of the history of the field, followed by a discussion of how it has evolved, and a discussion of the changing focus of the literature in the current century. This discussion summarizes the significant progress over the last four decades in the study of health and aging in the Americas. It identifies major themes, conceptual and theoretical perspectives, methodological approaches, and public health relevance. The chapter also provides a close examination of social and demographic characteristics of Latino subpopulations using health survey information. As we describe, high levels of poverty that persist into old age leave older individuals of Mexican descent on both sides of the border vulnerable to poor health, and expose them to risk factors that undermine their quality of life. The U.S. National Institute on Aging (NIA) has supported much of this research, prioritizing a risk assessment paradigm that examines both individual (genetic, biological, clinical) and socioeconomic factors that raise risk of poor outcomes. We end with a summary of directions for further investigation.