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Title: Military Service and Mortality: A Reappraisal Based on Frailty Models

Citation Type: Conference Paper

Publication Year: 2007

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Abstract: Several investigators have examined the influence of military service on mens life course trajectories, including health outcomes. Studies of late-life outcomes using samples of survivors, such as the HRS, must contend with a potentially serious initial-conditions problem: if military service changes mortality risks during the pre-HRS years, then the chances of surviving from the completion of military service until the HRS baseline will differ between veterans and non-veterans. We address this problem in two ways: we use estimates of pre-HRS survivorship based upon decennial Census data to adjust mortality models estimated using HRS data; and, we develop cohort mortality models that explicitly represent unmeasured heterogeneity, using the analytic machinery of fixed-frailty mortality dynamics. The HRS data fail to produce evidence of differential mortality by veteran status; in contrast, 1960 and 1990 Census data produce clear evidence that black veterans have lower death rates than black non-veterans.

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Authors: London, Andrew; Wolf, Douglas A.; Wilmoth, Janet

Conference Name: Population Association of America

Publisher Location: New York, NY

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Aging and Retirement, Health, Other

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