Place and Race: Health of African Americans in Nonmetropolitan Areas

The black health disadvantage, including old-age disability, is well-known and persists over the life course, although it is smaller in the older population. Both race and place of residence play a role in shaping health status and disability, and these effects are cumulative in a way that ages African Americans prematurely, resulting in greater functional limitations and disability. This chapter analyzes geographic differences in disability among African Americans age 65 and older using the concepts measured in the 2009 American Community Survey and comparing disabilities of nonmetropolitan blacks to metropolitan blacks and whites. In addition, it compares disability among Southern blacks to that of other blacks. The results show that, in general, elderly African Americans are substantially more likely than whites to have disabilities; both whites and blacks have more disabilities when they live in nonmetropolitan areas as compared to metropolitan areas; and, while elderly living in the South are more likely to experience disabilities than elderly in other regions of the United States, the race differential in disability is smaller in the South than the non-South.