Linking the 1940 US Census to the NSHAP: Novel Opportunity to Understand the Effects of Childhood Residential Environment on Cognitive Aging.

Objective: The 1940 Census is a valuable resource for understanding various aspects of historical populations in the United States. Recently, the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project (NSHAP) integrated 1940 Census data into its extensive dataset, providing researchers with an opportunity to explore new avenues of life course investigation. We leverage the newly-introduced measures of childhood residential environment and evaluate their potential predictive utility in older adult cognitive functioning net of childhood and adulthood characteristics known to be key risk factors for poor cognition.

Prediabetes Progression and Reversion: Social Factors and Racial/Ethnic Differences.

Objective: Racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately affected by diabetes. Social characteristics, such as family structure, social support, and loneliness, may contribute to these health disparities. In a nationally representative sample of diverse older adults, we evaluated longitudinal rates of both progression from prediabetes to diabetes and reversion from prediabetes to normoglycemia.

The Interplay of Race, Ethnicity, and Language in Caregiver Health: Insights from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project.

Background: Recent socio-demographic shifts in the United States have underscored the growing importance of informal caregiving and raised concerns about caregivers' health and well-being. This study aims to deepen our understanding of the health dimensions of caregivers, considering their diverse backgrounds.

Objective: To examine five key health dimensions (physical, cognitive, mental, social, and sexual health) of caregivers, and to identify potential disparities based on ethnoracial and linguistic differences.

Race/ethnicity and the measurement of cognition in NSHAP: Recommendations for robustness.

Objectives: In this study, we examine the measurement of cognition in different racial/ethnic groups to move towards a less biased and more inclusive set of measures for capturing cognitive change and decline in older adulthood.

Methods: We use data from Round 2 (N=3377) and Round 3 (N=4777) of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) and examine the study's Survey Adjusted version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA-SA). We employ exploratory factor analyses to explore configural invariance by racial/ethnic group.

Addressing Cognitive Assessment Disparities Among Hispanic Adults: Adapting the MoCA-SA for Improved Accuracy and Accessibility Among Spanish-speakers.

Objectives: Hispanic adults display a higher likelihood of early-stage cognitive decline than their White counterparts yet receive fewer clinical diagnoses. This troubling trend highlights the significance of longitudinal surveys like the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) in monitoring cognitive changes in aging Hispanics. Using NSHAP's Rounds 2 and 3, we observed notable cognitive score differences between English and Spanish speakers, as assessed by the survey-adapted version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA-SA).

Moderation of associations between weight discrimination and diabetes status by psychosocial factors.

Weight discrimination has adverse effects on health that include increasing the risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes. Preliminary evidence suggests a positive association between weight discrimination and diagnosed diabetes; however, it is unknown whether psychosocial resources may buffer this association. In logistic regressions stratified by gender, we examined links between weight discrimination and diabetes among a nationally representative sample of U.

The Threefold Path to Equity: Approaches for Health and Aging Researchers.

The authors present a model for pursuing equity in research on health and aging, in terms of: (a) community-driven research governance, with reference to examples inside and outside of the United States, (b) a focus on policy change, where policy is defined broadly in terms of all legislative and regulatory change, and (c) equity-focused research practices, at the level of measurement, analysis, and study design. The model is visualized as a "threefold path" that researchers may walk, to achieve changes within our field, and changes in how we interface with other fields, and communities.

A national recruitment strategy for HIV-serodiscordant partners living in Canada for the Positive Plus One study: a mixed-methods study.

Background: With the recent shift in focus to addressing HIV risk within relationships and couple-based interventions to prevent HIV transmission, successful recruitment of individuals involved in HIV-serodiscordant relationships is crucial. This paper evaluates methods used by the Positive Plus One (PP1) study to recruit and collect data on a diverse national sample of dyads and individuals involved in current or past HIV-serodiscordant relationships, discusses the strengths and limitations of the recruitment approach, and makes recommendations to inform the interpretation of study results and the design of future studies.

Methods: PP1 used a multi-pronged approach to recruit adults involved in a current or past HIV-serodiscordant relationship in Canada from 2016 to 2018 to complete a survey and an interview.

Disclosure of HIV-serodiscordant relationships and association with viral suppression: results from the Positive Plus One study.

Background: Little is known about the effects of disclosure of HIV-serodiscordant relationships on clinical outcomes. We aimed to evaluate the effect of relationship disclosure on HIV viral suppression, and hypothesized that disclosure by HIV-positive and HIV-negative partners would be associated with viral suppression in the HIV-positive partner.

Methods: We conducted a Canadian national online and telephone-administered survey of HIV-positive and HIV-negative partners in serodiscordant relationships.

Social capital and HIV-serodiscordance: Disparities in access to personal and professional resources for HIV-positive and HIV-negative partners.

As people living with HIV are living longer lives, they have a correspondingly greater opportunity to enjoy long-term romantic and sexual partnerships, including with persons who do not live with HIV ("serodiscordant" relationships). In these dyads, asymmetries may emerge in access to social resources between partners. In this paper we examined how serodiscordant couples access informal (interpersonal, such as family and friends) and formal (practitioner, such as doctor or social worker) social resources for health.

The Death of Confidants and Changes in Older Adults' Social Lives.

This study examines the consequences of confidant death for the social lives of older adults, testing hypotheses from socio-emotional selectivity theory and the hierarchical compensatory model. We draw upon longitudinal data from the National Social Life Health and Aging Project-a nationally representative survey of older adults ( = 2,261). We employ ordinary least squares (OLS) and ordinal logistic regressions in the context of multiple imputation with chained equations, checking our findings with doubly robust estimation.

Social Networks, Role-Relationships, and Personality in Older Adulthood.

Objectives: This article examines the implications of personality traits for social network connectedness in older adulthood, across different social relationships.

Methods: This article uses data from the National Social Life Health and Aging Project (NSHAP), a nationally-representative, longitudinal survey of community-dwelling older Americans (N = 2,261). Network characteristics were predicted using Poisson and negative binomial regression (for network size) as well as multilevel identity-linked and ordinal-logit-linked regressions (for tie strength).

Putting Sex Into Context in Later Life: Environmental Disorder and Sexual Interest Among Partnered Seniors.

Background And Objectives: This study examines whether neighborhood and household disorder is associated with sexual interest among partnered seniors.

Research Design And Methods: Analyses use dyadic data from Wave 2 of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), a nationally representative sample of community-dwelling older adults (2010-2011). Measures of environmental disorder were conducted by trained interviewers.

Compensatory Conscientiousness Redux: A Direct Replication of Roberts, Smith, Jackson, and Edmonds (2009).

The present study attempted to closely replicate Roberts, Smith, Jackson, and Edmonds (2009) who found, in part, a compensatory effect such that individuals with spouses higher in conscientiousness reported higher self-rated health and fewer physical limitations in the Health and Retirement Study. Using similarly structured data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project ( = 953), the current study found results largely consistent with the original study such that partner conscientiousness predicted both self-rated health and physical limitations, and husbands' conscientiousness and neuroticism interacted when predicting wives' self-rated health. A discussion of the usefulness of statistical significance versus effect size in replication follows.

A Comparison of Web and Telephone Responses From a National HIV and AIDS Survey.

Background: Response differences to survey questions are known to exist for different modes of questionnaire completion. Previous research has shown that response differences by mode are larger for sensitive and complicated questions. However, it is unknown what effect completion mode may have on HIV and AIDS survey research, which addresses particularly sensitive and stigmatized health issues.

Does disorder get "into the head" and "under the skin"? Layered contexts and bi-directional associations.

This paper utilizes a layered context approach to examine how neighborhood and household conditions are associated with the objective and subjective well-being of older adults. Using two waves of data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (n=2261), we assess subjective mental health through self-reported measures of perceived stress and distress and objective physical health through C-reactive protein (CRP). Environmental disorder was measured by independent, trained interviewers.

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.

Religious Influence on Older Americans' Sexual Lives: A Nationally-Representative Profile.

This study investigated the relationship between religious influence and sexual expression in older Americans, with specific attention to gender. Using the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, a nationally-representative survey of older adults, we created a composite measure of religious influence on sexual expression using Latent Class Analysis. We found more variability within denominations than between in terms of membership in the high-influence class; this indicated that religious influence on sexual expression was diverse within faiths.

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).

Marital Conflict in Older Couples: Positivity, Personality, and Health.

We examine the implications of health and personality characteristics for late-life marital conflict, using data from the 2010-11 wave of the National Social Life Health and Aging Project (NSHAP), a nationally representative study with data on both partners in 955 marital and cohabitational dyads. Using these data, we relate characteristics of husbands to characteristics of their wives, and vice versa. Wives with husbands in fair or poor physical health are more likely to report high levels of marital conflict, but the reverse is not true.

The onset of depression during the great recession: foreclosure and older adult mental health.

Objectives: We examined neighborhood-level foreclosure rates and their association with onset of depressive symptoms in older adults.

Methods: We linked data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (2005-2006 and 2010-2011 waves), a longitudinal, nationally representative survey, to data on zip code-level foreclosure rates, and predicted the onset of depressive symptoms using logit-linked regression.

Results: Multiple stages of the foreclosure process predicted the onset of depressive symptoms, with adjustment for demographic characteristics and changes in household assets, neighborhood poverty, and visible neighborhood disorder.

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.

Neighborhood stressors and cardiovascular health: crime and C-reactive protein in Dallas, USA.

We apply neighborhood-based theories of social organization and environmental stress to examine variation in a key indicator of inflammation-related cardiovascular risk-C-reactive protein (CRP). Specifically, we emphasize the potentially health-compromising role of rapid increases in the crime rate or "crime spikes" (focusing on a particularly fear-inducing crime - burglary). We also consider the extent to which the magnitude and significance of the association between burglary rate change and inflammatory processes varies by gender.

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.