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S H Preston

Publications and source records attributed to S H Preston.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1998

Childhood conditions that predict survival to advanced ages among African-Americans.

This paper investigates the social and economic circumstances of childhood that predict the probability of survival to age 85 among African-Americans. It uses a unique study design in which survivors are linked to their records in U.S. Censuses of 1900 and 1910. A control group of age and race-matched children is drawn from Public Use Samples for these censuses. It concludes that the factors most predictive of survival are farm background, having literate parents, and living in a two-parent household. Results support the interpretation that death risks are positively correlated over the life cycle.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1998

Reconstructing the size of the African American population by age and sex, 1930-1990.

We estimate the size of the African American population in five-year age groups at census dates from 1930 to 1990 using a three-part strategy. For cohorts born after 1935, we follow the U.S. Census Bureau in using classical demographic analysis. To estimate the size of cohorts born before 1895, we use extinct-generation estimates. For remaining cohorts, we implement an age/period/cohort model of census counts. All approaches are applied to a data set in which the age distribution of deaths has been corrected for age misreporting. Results provide strong confirmation of the basic validity of Census Bureau estimates of census undercounts for African Americans while extending estimates to new cohorts and periods. Our estimates are less consistent with an historical series prepared by Coale and Rives (1973).

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Educational differentials in mortality: United States, 1979-85.

The paper examines educational differentials in adult mortality in the United States within a multivariate framework using data from the National Longitudinal Mortality Survey (NLMS). As a preliminary step we compare the magnitude of educational mortality differentials in the United States to those documented in Europe. At ages 35-54, the proportionate reductions in mortality for each one year increase in schooling are similar in the United States to those documented in Europe. The analyses further reveal significant educational differentials in U.S. mortality among both men and women in the early 1980s. Differentials are larger for men and for working ages than for women and persons age 65 and above. These differentials persist but are reduced in magnitude when controls for income, marital status and current place of residence are introduced.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Population studies of mortality.

Population Studies has become the principal outlet for demographic research on mortality. Many of the advances in the measurement of mortality in data-poor countries were reported in its pages. It has also published most of the influential articles which attempted to make a broad-scale assessment of the sources of mortality change. These include special attention to developments in England and Wales and Sri Lanka. Capitalizing on the widespread availability of demographic surveys, articles in the 1980s featured careful analyses of the demographic correlates of child mortality. Such studies have passed the point of diminishing returns, and declines in child mortality have focused increased attention on conditions among adults. Unfortunately, demography has not developed the means for measuring and analysing adult mortality in underdeveloped countries that are equivalent in their power to methods for studying child mortality.

History, 20th Century↗
PubMed1996

African-American mortality at older ages: results of a matching study.

In this paper we investigate the quality of age reporting on death certificates of elderly African-Americans. We link a sample of death certificates of persons age 65+ in 1985 to records for the same individuals in U.S. censuses of 1900, 1910, and 1920 and to records of the Social Security Administration. The ages at death reported on death certificates are too young on average. Errors are greater for women than for men. Despite systematic under-reporting of age at death, too many deaths are registered at ages 95+. This excess reflects an age distribution of deaths that declines steeply with age, so that the base for upward transfers into an age category is much larger than the base for the transfers downward and out. When corrected ages at death are used to estimate age-specific death rates, African-American mortality rates increase substantially above age 85 and the racial "crossover" in mortality disappears. Uncertainty about white rates at ages 95+, however, prevents a decisive racial comparison at the very oldest ages.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1995

Are educational differentials in adult mortality increasing in the United States?

Two recent studies have compared the size of educational mortality differentials among adults in the 1980s to estimates for 1960. Both studies have concluded that educational differentials have increased for males. One study finds a similar increase for females. We reconsider this question by introducing a data source that is better suited to estimating recent differentials than either of the two that have been employed. We also evaluate the quality of the 1960 baseline estimates and introduce broader measures of inequality. We conclude that educational inequalities have widened for males but contracted for working-age females. For both sexes, inequality trends are more adverse for persons aged 65+ than for persons aged 25-64. The role of national health insurance in shaping these trends is briefly considered.

Adult↗