One goal of a considerable amount of research on aging among minority groups has been to examine the outcomes of life-long patterns of inequality that cumulate in old age. The life experiences of blacks and whites in the United States, for example, have been characterized by different patterns of education, economic success, and employment, an well as different access to the goods, resources, and privileges available within the larger society. Two of the characteristics most strongly affected by these life-long inequalities are health status and economic status.

It has been obvious for some time that health status is different for the black and white populations in the United States. Patterns of infant mortality, mortality at other ages, and overall longevity were long ago noted to be sharply differentiated by race, suggesting that morbidity patterns maybe different as well (see Farley and Allen, 1987; Markides and Mindel, 1987). Recent studies of health differences among black and white populations support the conclusion that aggregate levels and patterns of health differ for these groups (Berkman, Singer and Manton, 1989; Ferraro, 1987; Ford et al., 1990; Linn, Hunter and Linn, 1980; Manton, Patrick and Johnson, 1987).

The reasons for the observed health differences between blacks and whites are not entirely clear. One of the more compelling arguments traces both morbidity and mortality experiences of blacks and whites to differences in socioeconomic status. This argument is plausible because socioeconomic status conditions many factors that relate to health, ranging from knowledge of health care practices and nutrition to ability to purchase medical care. Indeed, studies that have addressed socioeconomic determinants of health show conclusively that individuals with more education and income are in better health (Antonovsky, 1967; Syme and Berkman, 1981; Victor, 1989). Because the trajectories of both health and socioeconomic accumulation converge in later life, the study of the association between health and socioeconomic status is particularly) important for the older population.

The primary goal of this study in to consider the association between socioeconomic status and health among blacks and whites in later life. The study begins with a descriptive review of health-related differences between blacks and whites age 55 and over. This is followed by a multivariate analysis of health status and health care service utilization in later life that emphasizes socioeconomic explanations. This analysis, extends previous work in the area by considering multiple indicators of health as well as multiple dimensions of socioeconomic status, in order to provide a more comprehensive assessment of the ways in which socioeconomic status and race interact to shape patterns of health in later life. The empirical analysis is undertaken using the third and fourth waves of the 1984 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation, a nationally representative survey of the household population.