Predictors of Decline in Cognitive Status, Incidence of Dementia/CIND and All-Cause Mortality in Older Latinos: The Role of Nativity and Cultural Orientation in the Sacramento Area Latino Study on Aging.

Elderly Mexican Americans are one of the fastest growing groups of elderly in the United States. It is estimated that by 2050 older people of Mexican origin will constitute more than one million persons (Day, 1996). The rapid growth of the Mexican American population in the U.S. is due in part to immigration (Stephen, Foote, Hendershot, and Schoenborn, 1994; Larsen, 2004). Many of the elderly in this ethnic group migrated from Mexico in their youth, yet few studies have evaluated the long-term effects of migration on health status in old age. Some research (Angel, Buckley, and Sakamoto, 2001; Buckley, Angel, and Donahue, 2000) has suggested that duration of residence in the U.S. may be associated with changes in health status and that there may be gender differences in the effects of migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]