Lipid levels: a link between cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis?

Epidemiological observations support a positive relationship between cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and osteoporosis, where cholesterol has been indicated to be a possible link. Only a few studies have investigated the relation between lipids and BMD, but the association remains unclear. We studied the relationship between serum lipids and BMD of the calcaneus.

Educational differences in functional limitations: comparisons of 55-65-year-olds in the Netherlands in 1992 and 2002.

Objectives: This study compares educational differences in the functional limitations of 55-65-year-olds in the Netherlands in 1992 and 2002 and examines whether changes are explained by cohort lifestyle and psychosocial changes.

Methods: Data from two cohorts of 55-65-year-olds (n = 948 in 1992 and n = 980 in 2002) in the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam are analysed.

Results: Men's disability ratios are similar in both cohorts.

Socioeconomic inequalities in health in older women.

Socioeconomic status differentials in health are well documented. Less is known about the socioeconomic variation in health in older people, and in older women in particular. The aim of the study was to examine the association between socioeconomic status and health in older women in relation to two indicators of socioeconomic status and three measures of health, and further, to investigate whether socioeconomic differences in health increase or decrease with advancing age.

Glucocorticoid receptor gene polymorphisms and childhood adversity are associated with depression: New evidence for a gene-environment interaction.

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis regulates the response to stressful events and is expected to be involved in the pathogenesis of depression. The glucocorticoid receptor (GR) regulates the activity of the HPA-axis. Both GR gene polymorphisms and childhood adversity are known to be associated with increased risk for depression.

Persistent Deterioration of Functioning (PDF) and change in well-being in older persons.

Background And Aims: It is often assumed that aging is accompanied by diverse and constant functional and cognitive decline, and it is therefore surprising that the well-being of older persons does not appear to decline in the same way. This study investigates longitudinally whether well-being in older persons changes due to Persistent Deterioration of Functioning (PDF).

Methods: Data were collected in the context of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA).

Obesity in older adults is associated with an increased prevalence and incidence of pain.

Cross-sectional studies suggest an association between BMI and pain. This prospective study investigated the associations of measured BMI and waist circumference with prevalent and incident pain in older adults. The study included participants of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam, aged 55-85 years at baseline (1992-1993).

Early-onset dementia is associated with higher mortality.

Background/aims: Our objective was to compare the mortality risks of patients with early- and late-onset dementia with non-demented controls of the same age range and to analyse the mortality risks in subtypes of dementia.

Methods: We included 1,203 subjects from our memory clinic. Patients with dementia were subdivided into 2 groups, with early- (<65 years) or late-onset dementia (>or=65 years), and compared with non-demented controls of the same age range.

Setting and registry characteristics affect the prevalence and nature of multimorbidity in the elderly.

Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate how settings and registry characteristics affect the prevalence and nature of multimorbidity in elderly individuals.

Study Design And Setting: We used data from three population-based studies, two general practitioner registries, one hospital discharge register, and one nursing home registry to estimate the prevalence of multimorbidity. Individuals aged 55 years and over were included.

An epidemiological approach to depression prevention in old age.

Objective: To identify target groups for prevention of chronic or recurrent depression in old age such that prevention is likely to become cost-effective.

Methods: Data were used from a population-based cohort study (N = 2,200). Chronic or recurrent depression was defined when people presented with clinically high levels of depression at two time points separated by 3 years.

Depression is associated with decreased 25-hydroxyvitamin D and increased parathyroid hormone levels in older adults.

Context: Depression has incidentally been related to altered levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] and parathyroid hormone (PTH), but this relation has never been studied systematically.

Objective: To determine in a large population-based cohort whether there is an association between depression and altered 25(OH)D and PTH levels.

Design: Population-based cohort study (Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam).

Somatic chronic diseases and 6-year change in cognitive functioning among older persons.

The influence of seven highly prevalent somatic chronic diseases on changes in cognitive functioning is investigated in older persons in a prospective design covering a 6-year follow-up period. The data were collected as part of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA). The associations between chronic diseases and cognitive functioning during 6 years of follow-up were analyzed among 1358 respondents (age 62-85) using generalized estimated equations (GEE).

Low testosterone levels and decline in physical performance and muscle strength in older men: findings from two prospective cohort studies.

Objective: Progressive declines in serum levels of testosterone parallel the decline in physical performance and muscle strength in ageing men, although findings are not conclusive. We examined whether levels of testosterone were associated with 3-year decline in physical performance and muscle strength in older men.

Design: Longitudinal data were available for 486 men (mean age 74.

Contribution of metabolic syndrome components to cognition in older individuals.

Objective: Recent evidence suggests that the metabolic syndrome and inflammation affect cognitive decline in old age and that they reinforce each other. However, it is not known what the roles of the individual components of the metabolic syndrome on cognition are.

Research Design And Methods: The sample consisted of 1,183 participants in the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam who were aged 65-88 years.

Chronic disease and lifestyle transitions: results from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam.

Objective: This article addresses the association between course of chronic disease and lifestyle.

Method: We examined differences in unhealthy lifestyles--smoking, excessive alcohol use, being sedentary--and transitions herein after 6 years in prevalent and incident chronic disease categories--lung and cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and osteoarthritis and/or rheumatic arthritis--among 2,184 respondents aged 55 years and older from the Netherlands. We also examined if transitions in lifestyle co-occurred with changes in disease-related symptomatology.

Major depression in late life is associated with both hypo- and hypercortisolemia.

Background: In younger adults, depression has been associated with hypercortisolemia. In older depressed patients, however, both low and high cortisol levels have been reported. We examined the possibility of a U-shaped association between depression and cortisol in older people, suggesting both hypo- and hyperactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.

Target groups for the prevention of late-life anxiety.

Background: Anxiety disorders in older people are highly prevalent, yet there is little evidence to guide targeted prevention strategies.

Aims: To identify subgroups at increased risk of developing anxiety in later life.

Method: Anxiety was measured with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression anxiety sub-scale in 1931 people aged 55-85 years followed over 3 years.

Gender differences in depressive symptoms among older adults: a cross-national comparison: the CLESA project.

Objectives: To assess country-specific gender differences in depressive symptoms and to explore if exposures and vulnerabilities vary by gender among older men and women from four European countries and Israel.

Methods: Data on 4,449 subjects between 75 and 84 years old were derived from CLESA ("Cross-national determinants of quality of life and health services for the elderly". A ratio score of depressive symptoms derived form the CESD and GDS scales was regressed on education, marital status, living arrangements, comorbidity and disability and all interactions of these factors with gender and country.

Prayer and depressive symptoms in a period of secularization: patterns among older adults in the Netherlands.

Objective: Prayer is generally recognized as an important aspect of religiousness. Relatively few empiric studies examined the relation between prayer and depressive symptoms in later life, and findings so far are mixed.

Method: Respondents, aged 60-91 years, participated in the third (N = 1,702) and fourth (N = 1,346) assessment cycles, with three-year intervals, of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam.

Vitamin D status predicts physical performance and its decline in older persons.

Context: Vitamin D deficiency is common among older people and can cause mineralization defects, bone loss, and muscle weakness.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the association of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD) concentration with current physical performance and its decline over 3 yr among elderly.

Design: The study consisted of a cross-sectional and longitudinal design (3-yr follow-up) within the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam.

Unhealthy lifestyles during the life course: association with physical decline in late life.

Background And Aims: This study aimed at examining the association between unhealthy lifestyle in young age, midlife and/or old age and physical decline in old age, and between chronic exposure to an unhealthy lifestyle throughout life and physical decline in old age.

Methods: The study sample included 1297 respondents of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA). Lifestyle in old age (55-85 y) was assessed at baseline, whereas lifestyle in young age (around 25 y) and midlife (around 40 y) were assessed retrospectively.

Mastery and neuroticism predict recovery of depression in later life.

Objective: The authors examined whether personality characteristics such as mastery, self-efficacy, and neuroticism predict the likelihood of recovery of depression among elderly in the community. It was hypothesized that these personality characteristics do predict recovery but that their effect is overwhelmed by the effect of deteriorations in physical health, cognitive decline, and loss of social resources. The second research question investigated whether these personality characteristics moderate the negative impact of the other prognostic factors on the chance of recovery.

Wartime stressors and mental health symptoms as predictors of late-life mortality in World War II survivors.

Background: Pathways through which wartime stress leads to excess mortality have not been examined so far. The current study examines wartime stress in relation to late-life mortality among 1448 World War II survivors, and potential mediating effects of mental health symptoms that were assessed in 1992.

Methods: In 1992, a community survey was held.

Childhood adversity, recent life events and depression in late life.

Background: The study investigates whether persons who have experienced childhood adversity are more likely to develop depressive symptoms when faced with recent events.

Method: Data were used from a population-based sample, aged 55 to 85 years (n=1887), which were not depressed at baseline. Childhood adversities and recent stressful life events were retrospectively assessed.