Volunteering in Young Adulthood: Complex Associations With Later Health and Well-Being Outcomes.

Purpose: To investigate whether in volunteering from adolescence to young adulthood are associated with subsequent health and well-being outcomes in adulthood.

Design: Longitudinal cohort study.

Setting: National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health.

Are loneliness and social isolation equal threats to health and well-being? An outcome-wide longitudinal approach.

The detrimental effects of loneliness and social isolation on health and well-being outcomes are well documented. In response, governments, corporations, and community-based organizations have begun leveraging tools to create interventions and policies aimed at reducing loneliness and social isolation at scale. However, these efforts are frequently hampered by a key knowledge gap: when attempting to improve specific health and well-being outcomes, decision-makers are often unsure whether to target loneliness, social isolation, or both.

Who Benefits From Helping? Moderators of the Association Between Informal Helping and Mortality.

Background: While informal helping has been linked to a reduced risk of mortality, it remains unclear if this association persists across different levels of key social structural moderators.

Purpose: To examine whether the longitudinal association between informal helping and all-cause mortality differs by specific social structural moderators (including age, gender, race/ethnicity, wealth, income, and education) in a large, prospective, national, and diverse sample of older U.S.

Informal Helping and Subsequent Health and Well-Being in Older U.S. Adults.

Background: Growing evidence suggests that informal helping (unpaid volunteering not coordinated by an organization or institution) is associated with improved health and well-being outcomes. However, studies have not investigated whether changes in informal helping are associated with subsequent health and well-being.

Methods: This study evaluated if changes in informal helping (between t;2006/2008 and t;2010/2012) were associated with 35 indicators of physical, behavioral, and psychosocial health and well-being (at t;2014/2016) using data from 12,998 participants in the Health and Retirement study - a national cohort of US adults aged > 50.

Reduced Epigenetic Age in Older Adults With High Sense of Purpose in Life.

Psychosocial risk factors have been linked with accelerated epigenetic aging, but little is known about whether psychosocial resilience factors (eg, Sense of Purpose in Life) might reduce epigenetic age acceleration. In this study, we tested if older adults who experience high levels of Purpose might show reduced epigenetic age acceleration. We evaluated the relationship between Purpose and epigenetic age acceleration as measured by 13 DNA methylation (DNAm) "epigenetic clocks" assessed in 1 572 older adults from the Health and Retirement Study (mean age 70 years).

Reduced epigenetic age in older adults who volunteer.

Background: Volunteering is associated with improved health and well-being outcomes, including a reduced risk of mortality. However, the biological mechanisms underlying the association between volunteering and healthy aging and longevity have not been well-established. We evaluated if volunteering was associated with reduced epigenetic age acceleration in older adults.

Identifying pathways to religious service attendance among older adults: A lagged exposure-wide analysis.

We used prospective data (spanning 8 years) from a national sample of older U.S. adults aged > 50 years (the Health and Retirement Study, N = 13,771) to evaluate potential factors that lead to subsequent religious service attendance.

Pathways to reduced overnight hospitalizations in older adults: Evaluating 62 physical, behavioral, and psychosocial factors.

As our society ages and healthcare costs escalate, researchers and policymakers urgently seek potentially modifiable predictors of reduced healthcare utilization. We aimed to determine whether changes in 62 candidate predictors were associated with reduced frequency, and duration, of overnight hospitalizations. We used data from 11,374 participants in the Health and Retirement Study-a national sample of adults aged >50 in the United States.

What makes life purposeful? Identifying the antecedents of a sense of purpose in life using a lagged exposure-wide approach.

Aims: Prior research documents strong associations between an increased sense of in life and improved health and well-being outcomes. However, less is known about candidate antecedents that lead to more purpose among older adults.

Methods: We used data from 13,771 participants in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) - a diverse, national panel study of adults aged >50 in the United States, to evaluate a large number of candidate predictors of purpose.

Identifying pathways to increased volunteering in older US adults.

While growing evidence documents strong associations between volunteering and improved health and well-being outcomes, less is known about the health and well-being factors that lead to increased volunteering. Using data from 13,771 participants in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS)-a diverse, longitudinal, and national sample of older adults in the United States-we evaluated a large range of candidate predictors of volunteering. Specifically, using generalized linear regression models with a lagged exposure-wide approach, we evaluated if changes in 61 predictors spanning physical health, health behaviors, and psychosocial well-being (over a 4-year follow-up between t; 2006/2008 and t; 2010/2012) were associated with volunteer activity four years later (t; 2014/2016).

Associations Between Satisfaction With Aging and Health and Well-being Outcomes Among Older US Adults.

Importance: Researchers and policy makers are expanding the focus from risk factors of disease to seek potentially modifiable health factors that enhance people's health and well-being. Understanding if and to what degree aging satisfaction (one's beliefs about their own aging) is associated with a range of health and well-being outcomes aligns with the interests of older adults, researchers, health systems, and politicians.

Objectives: To evaluate associations between changes in aging satisfaction and 35 subsequent health and well-being outcomes.

Are all domains of life satisfaction equal? Differential associations with health and well-being in older adults.

Purpose: Growing evidence documents strong associations between overall life satisfaction and favorable health and well-being outcomes. However, because most previous studies have assessed satisfaction with one's life as a whole, we know little about whether specific domains of life satisfaction (e.g.

Sense of Purpose in Life and Subsequent Physical, Behavioral, and Psychosocial Health: An Outcome-Wide Approach.

Purpose: Growing evidence indicates that a higher sense of in life () is associated with reduced risk of chronic diseases and mortality. However, epidemiological studies have not evaluated if change in is associated with subsequent health and well-being outcomes.

Design: We evaluated if positive change in (between t; 2006/2008 and t;2010/2012) was associated with better outcomes on 35 indicators of physical health, health behaviors, and psychosocial well-being (at t;2014/2016).

The positive influence of sense of control on physical, behavioral, and psychosocial health in older adults: An outcome-wide approach.

Accumulating research indicates robust associations between sense of control and salutary health and well-being outcomes. However, whether change in sense of control is associated with subsequent outcomes has been under-evaluated. Participants (N = 12,998) were from the Health and Retirement Study-a diverse, nationally representative, and longitudinal sample of U.

Early-life stress, depressive symptoms, and inflammation: the role of social factors.

Objective: To identify modifiable, social factors that moderate the relationship between early-life stress (ELS) and health outcomes as measured by depressive symptoms and inflammation.

Methods: Data were from 3,416 adults (58.28% female), ages 36 - 97 (M = 68.