Assessing how Age, Sex, Race, and Education Affect the Relationships Between Cognitive Domains and Odor Identification.

Background: The associations between cognitive domains and odor identification are well established, but how sociodemographic variables affect these relationships is less clear.

Purpose: Using the survey-adapted Montreal Cognitive Assessment instrument (MoCA-SA), we assess how age, sex, race, and education shape these relationships.

Methods: We first used cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling to empirically derive distinct cognitive domains from the MoCA-SA as it is unclear whether the MoCA-SA can be disaggregated into cognitive domains.

Tracking Egocentric Social Network Change Across Three Rounds of National Survey Data.

Background: The National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) has collected 3 rounds of data on older adults' egocentric social networks. We describe the structure of network data collection for different components of the sample and the data that are available for those groups. We also describe survey techniques that were used to track specific personnel changes that occurred within respondents' networks during the 10-year study period.

Homeostasis Revisited: Patterns of Stability and Rebalancing in Older Adults' Social Lives.

Objectives: To examine patterns of change in later-life social connectedness: (a) the extent and direction of changes in different aspects of social connectedness, including size, density, and composition of social networks, network turnover, and three types of community involvement and (b) the sequential nature of these changes over time.

Method: We use three waves of nationally representative data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, collected from 2005/2006 to 2015/2016. Respondents were between the ages of 67 and 95 at follow-up.

Multiplex Competition, Collaboration, and Funding Networks Among Health and Social Organizations: Toward Organization-based HIV Interventions for Young Men Who Have Sex With Men.

Background: Young men who have sex with men (YMSM) have the highest rates of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in the United States. Decades into the HIV epidemic, the relationships that YMSM-serving health and social organizations have with one another has not been studied in depth.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the competition, collaboration, and funding source structures of multiplex organization networks and the mechanisms that promote fruitful relationships among these organizations.

Empirical redefinition of comprehensive health and well-being in the older adults of the United States.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as a "state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." Despite general acceptance of this comprehensive definition, there has been little rigorous scientific attempt to use it to measure and assess population health. Instead, the dominant model of health is a disease-centered Medical Model (MM), which actively ignores many relevant domains.

Sexuality in Older Couples: Individual and Dyadic Characteristics.

Sexuality is a key component of health and functioning that changes with age. Although most sexual activity takes place with a partner, the majority of research on sexuality has focused on individuals. In this paper, we focused on the sexual dyad.

Assessment of social network change in a national longitudinal survey.

Objectives: This article describes new longitudinal data on older adults' egocentric social networks collected by the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP). We describe a novel survey technique that was used to record specific personnel changes that occurred within respondents' networks during the 5-year study period, and we make recommendations regarding usage of the resulting data.

Method: Descriptive statistics are presented for measures of network size, composition, and structure at both waves, respondent-level summary measures of change in these characteristics between waves, as well as measures that distinguish between changes associated with losses of Wave 1 network members, additions of new ones, and changes in relationships with network members who were present at both waves.

Personality measures in the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project.

Objectives: Provide recommendations for researchers on the use of the Big Five personality battery in the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), and ensure that the battery does proxy the Big Five. Also, describe the levels of Big Five traits across gender and age.

Method: We used an Exploratory Structural Equation Model (ESEM) to analyze NHSAP's personality battery, comparing NSHAP with the National Longitudinal Study of Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS).

Social network properties and self-rated health in later life: comparisons from the Korean social life, health, and aging project and the national social life, health and aging project.

Background: This paper has two objectives. Firstly, it provides an overview of the social network module, data collection procedures, and measurement of ego-centric and complete-network properties in the Korean Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (KSHAP). Secondly, it directly compares the KSHAP structure and results to the ego-centric network structure and results of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), which conducted in-home interviews with 3,005 persons 57 to 85 years of age in the United States.

A digital network approach to infer sex behavior in emerging HIV epidemics.

Purpose: Improve the ability to infer sex behaviors more accurately using network data.

Methods: A hybrid network analytic approach was utilized to integrate: (1) the plurality of reports from others tied to individual(s) of interest; and (2) structural features of the network generated from those ties. Network data was generated from digitally extracted cell-phone contact lists of a purposeful sample of 241 high-risk men in India.

A new HIV prevention network approach: sociometric peer change agent selection.

Internationally, the Peer Change Agent (PCA) model is the most frequently used conceptual framework for HIV prevention. Change agents themselves can be more important than the messages they convey. PCA selection is operationalized via heterogeneous methods based upon individual-level attributes.

Structural bridging network position is associated with HIV status in a younger Black men who have sex with men epidemic.

Younger Black men who have sex with men (BMSM) ages 16-29 have the highest rates of HIV in the United States. Despite increased attention to social and sexual networks as a framework for biomedical intervention, the role of measured network positions, such as bridging and their relationship to HIV risk has received limited attention. A network sample (N = 620) of BMSM respondents (N = 154) and their MSM and transgendered person network members (N = 466) was generated through respondent driven sampling of BMSM and elicitation of their personal networks.

The health benefits of network growth: new evidence from a national survey of older adults.

Scholars who study how social networks affect older adults' health are often concerned with the prospect of declining social connectedness in late life. This paper shifts the focus to older adults' tendencies to cultivate new social ties. This process of network growth can improve access to social resources, boost self-esteem, reduce loneliness, and increase physical activity.

Network mixing and network influences most linked to HIV infection and risk behavior in the HIV epidemic among black men who have sex with men.

Objectives: We evaluated network mixing and influences by network members upon Black men who have sex with men.

Methods: We conducted separate social and sexual network mixing analyses to determine the degree of mixing on risk behaviors (e.g.

HIV health center affiliation networks of black men who have sex with men: disentangling fragmented patterns of HIV prevention service utilization.

Background: In the United States, black men who have sex with men (BMSM) are at highest risk for HIV infection and are at high risk for limited health service utilization. We describe HIV health center (HHC) affiliation network patterns and their potential determinants among urban BMSM.

Methods: The Men's Assessment of Social and Risk Network instrument was used to elicit HHC utilization, as reported by study respondents recruited through respondent-driven sampling.

Candidate change agent identification among men at risk for HIV infection.

Despite limited HIV prevention potency, peer-based programs have become one of the most often used HIV prevention approaches internationally. These programs demonstrate a need for greater specificity in peer change agent (PCA) recruitment and social network evaluation. In the present three-phase study based in India (2009-2010), we first explored the nature of friendship among truck-drivers, a group of men at high risk for HIV infection, in order to develop a thorough understanding of the social forces that contribute to and maintain their personal networks.

Classification of older adults who have diabetes by comorbid conditions, United States, 2005-2006.

Introduction: Older adults who have diabetes vary widely in terms of comorbid conditions; these conditions help determine the risks and benefits of intensive glycemic control. Not all people benefit from intensive glycemic control. The objective of this study was to classify by comorbid conditions older American adults who have diabetes to identify those who are less likely to benefit from intensive glycemic control.

Network position and sexual dysfunction: implications of partner betweenness for men.

This article combines relational perspectives on gender identity with social network structural perspectives on health to understand men's sexual functioning. The authors argue that network positions that afford independence and control over social resources are consistent with traditional masculine roles and may therefore affect men's sexual performance. For example, when a heterosexual man's female partner has more frequent contact with his confidants than he does--which the authors refer to as partner betweenness--his relational autonomy, privacy, and control are constrained.

Definitions/epidemiology/risk factors for sexual dysfunction.

Introduction: Accurate estimates of prevalence/incidence are important in understanding the true burden of male and female sexual dysfunction and in identifying risk factors for prevention efforts. This is the summary of the report by the International Consultation Committee for Sexual Medicine on Definitions/Epidemiology/Risk Factors for Sexual Dysfunction.

Aim: The main aim of this article is to provide a general overview of the definitions of sexual dysfunction for men and women, the incidence and prevalence rates, and a description of the risk factors identified in large population-based studies.

Socioeconomic disparity in healthcare-seeking behavior among Chinese Women with genitourinary symptoms.

Background: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are of growing concern in China. Understanding the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and healthcare-seeking (HCS) behavior will help design effective policies to contain the epidemic of STIs across SES.

Methods: We used the Chinese Health and Family Life Survey, a nationally representative survey of 3813 adults from 48 Chinese cities and counties during 1999-2000.

Social Networks in the NSHAP Study: rationale, measurement, and preliminary findings.

Objectives: This paper describes the rationale behind the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project's (NSHAP) social networks module, data collection procedures, and the measurement of several egocentric network properties. This includes a discussion of network size, composition, volume of contact with network members, density, and bridging potential. Data on the extent to which older adults involve network members in personal health matters are also discussed.

Sexuality: measures of partnerships, practices, attitudes, and problems in the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Study.

Objectives: The National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) was designed to examine the relationship between sexual behavior, sexual problems, and health among older women and men. We describe measures of sexual partnerships, sexual practices, sexual problems, attitudes toward sex, and nonsexual intimacy in the first wave of NSHAP.

Methods: We compare measures of sexuality for those 57-85 years old, by age, separately for men and women.

Partner violence and sexual jealousy in China: a population-based survey.

Using data from a nationally representative survey in China, this article examines the prevalence and risk factors for partner violence with a special focus on the important role of sexual jealousy. Among women aged 20 to 49, 7.2% reported that they were hit by their partners in the past year.