Long-term economic growth stimulus of human capital preservation in the elderly.

Health care is a crucial factor in US economic growth, because growing health care costs have made US corporations less competitive than their counterparts in countries where central governments assume most of those costs. In this paper we illustrate a second, possibly more powerful, effect of health care expenditures on the long term pace of US economic growth, i.e.

NIH funding trajectories and their correlations with US health dynamics from 1950 to 2004.

To determine optimal future National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding levels, the longitudinal correlation of the level of investment in NIH research with population changes in the risk of specific diseases should be analyzed. This is because NIH research is the primary source of new therapies and treatments for major chronic diseases, many of which were viewed as relatively untreatable in the 1950s. NIH research is also important in developing preventative and screening strategies to support public health interventions.

Cohort changes in active life expectancy in the U.S. elderly population: experience from the 1982-2004 National Long-Term Care Survey.

Objectives: To understand declines in chronic disability prevalence in the U.S. elderly population, we examined cohort changes in active life expectancy, a health measure relating population disability and longevity dynamics.

Association between APOE epsilon 2/epsilon 3/epsilon 4 polymorphism and disability severity in a national long-term care survey sample.

Background: early studies reported controversial findings on association of apolipoprotein E (APOE) polymorphism with disability.

Objective: to analyse sex-specific associations of APOE genotypes with impairments in (instrumental) activities of daily living [(I)ADL] and mortality.

Design: population-based 1999 National Long Term Care Survey (NLTCS) of the US older (65+) individuals.

Health-protective and adverse effects of the apolipoprotein E epsilon2 allele in older men.

Objectives: To reexamine a health-protective role of the common apolipoprotein E (APOE) polymorphism focusing on connections between the APOE epsilon2-containing genotypes and impairments in instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) in older (> or = 65) men and women and to examine how diagnosed coronary heart disease (CHD), Alzheimer's disease, colorectal cancer, macular degeneration, and atherosclerosis may mediate these connections.

Design: Retrospective cross-sectional study.

Setting: The unique disability-focused data from a genetic subsample of the 1999 National Long Term Care Survey linked with Medicare service use files.

Recent declines in chronic disability in the elderly U.S. population: risk factors and future dynamics.

As U.S. life expectancy has increased, questions arise as to how the quality of health and functioning in the elderly population has changed.

Labor force participation and human capital increases in an aging population and implications for U.S. research investment.

The proportion of the United States labor force >/=65 years of age is projected to increase between 2004 and 2014 by the passing of age 65 of the large post-World War II baby boom cohorts starting in 2010 and their greater longevity, income, education, and health [Toossi M (2005) Mon Labor Rev 128(11):25-44]. The aging of the U.S.

Health-based population forecasting: effects of smoking on mortality and fertility.

A microsimulation model, allowing one to forecast short- and long-term population changes conditional on the prevalence of a risk factor in a population, is presented. In this model, population changes result from the aggregation of changes in individual event histories, which, in turn, result from mortality and infertility rates recalculated in accordance with their known relative risks in population groups exposed to a risk factor. Smoking, being the most widespread and influential preventable public health risk factor, is chosen to demonstrate the abilities of the model to forecast the population effects of different hypothetical smoking prevalences.

Medicare cost effects of recent U.S. disability trends in the elderly: future implications.

Objective: The authors examine how trends in disability prevalence and in inflation-adjusted per capita, per annum Medicare costs, 1982 to 1999 and 1989 to 1999, affected total Medicare costs projected to 2004 and 2009.

Method: To describe disability trends, the authors applied grade of membership analyses to 27 measures of disability from the 1982 to 1999 National Long Term Care Surveys (NLTCS). This identified seven disability profiles for which individual scores were calculated.

Change in chronic disability from 1982 to 2004/2005 as measured by long-term changes in function and health in the U.S. elderly population.

Changes in the health and functioning of the Medicare-enrolled population aged 65+ are tracked by using the 1982-2004/2005 National Long-Term Care Surveys. We found a significant rate of decline in the prevalence of chronic disability that accelerated from 1982 to 2004. These declines are significant for both persons with less severe chronic disability, which might be compensated by modifying the built environment and providing assistive devices, and for persons with more serious disability, which may be affected by reductions in the incidence and severity of disease through biomedical interventions.

Whether ionizing radiation is a risk factor for schizophrenia spectrum disorders?

The neural diathesis-stressor hypothesis of schizophrenia, where neurobiological genetic predisposition to schizophrenia can be provoked by environmental stressors is considered as a model of the effects of exposure to ionizing radiation. Analysis of information from electronic databases (MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Current Contents, Elsevier BIOBASE) and hand-made search was carried out. There are comparable reports on increases in schizophrenia spectrum disorders following exposure to ionizing radiation as a result of atomic bombing, nuclear weapons testing, the Chernobyl accident, environmental contamination by radioactive waste, radiotherapy, and also in areas with high natural radioactive background.

Endothelial progenitor cell therapy for atherosclerosis: the philosopher's stone for an aging population?

Much of the increased risk for atherosclerosis progression with age may be a result of age-related declines in the capacity of precursor cells to repair damage in the arterial endothelium. To estimate the impact of progenitor cell therapy for atherosclerosis on cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality, life expectancy, and survival, as compared with the lifetime control of conventional risk factors, we modeled the health effects of bone marrow-derived endothelial progenitor cell therapy using data from the 1950 to 1996 follow-up of the Framingham Heart Study. To model cardiovascular disease mortality, we assumed that progenitor cell therapy was applied at age 30, with the effect assumed to be a 10-year delay in atherosclerosis progression.

ROS effects on neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease and related disorders: on environmental stresses of ionizing radiation.

Neurodegenerative processes associated with Alzheimer's disease are complex and involve many CNS tissue types, structures and biochemical processes. Factors believed involved in these processes are generation of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), associated inflammatory responses, and the bio-molecular and genetic damage they produce. Since oxidative processes are essential to energy production, and to other biological functions, such as cell signaling, the process is not one of risk exposure, as for cigarettes and cancer, but one where normal physiological processes operate out of normal ranges and without adequate control.

Newborn screening for severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID): a review.

Because prompt intervention may prevent complications, early diagnosis is important in many inherited metabolic diseases. Early diagnosis of Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID) is critical - because chances for successful treatment are highest for infants who have not yet experienced severe opportunistic infections. SCID is a rare disease that can be detected in newborn infants (i.

Genome organization and three kinds of heritable changes: general description and stochastic factors (a review).

Due to the increased knowledge of genome architecture, topology, and the mechanisms of hereditary variability, the list of genetic components has grown. This review outlines the general features and principles of genome organization in diverse organisms. The genome codes, stores, and transfers information in both structurally and dynamically.

The immune system in aging: roles of cytokines, T cells and NK cells.

Aging is characterized by a proinflammatory state that contributes to the onset of disability and age-related diseases. Proinflammatory cytokines play a central role in mediating cellular and physiological responses. The levels of these cytokines may reflect immune system effectiveness.

A three-generation approach in biodemography is based on the developmental profiles and the epigenetics of female gametes.

We suggest that there are three premises underlying the need for biodemographic analyses of three-generations: 1.) To describe the structure of the genome, we need to use (apart from mutations) other kinds of heritable changes such as those mediated by facultative elements (variations) and epigenetic alterations. 2.

Fuzzy set analyses of genetic determinants of health and disability status.

Analyses of complex genotype-phenotype relations require new statistical procedures because of the potentially high dimensionability of those relations which are expressed with both measurement error and stochasticity in the correlation function. We propose modifying a multivariate procedure called grade of membership (GoM) analysis to deal with the special problems of such analyses. In doing so, we make clear some special features of the GoM model for multivariate analysis of high dimensional, discrete data.

Effect of exposure to light-at-night on life span and spontaneous carcinogenesis in female CBA mice.

The effect of constant illumination on the development of spontaneous tumors in female CBA mice was investigated. Fifty female CBA mice starting from the age of 2 months were kept under standard light/dark regimen (12 hr light:12 hr dark; LD) and 50 CBA mice of similar age were kept under constant illumination (24 hr a day, 2,500 Lux, LL). Exposure to the LL regimen decreased food consumption but did not influence body weight, significantly accelerated age-related disturbances in estrous function, and was followed by a significant increase in spontaneous tumor incidence in female CBA mice.

Disability trends in gender and race groups of early retirement ages in the USA.

Objectives: To analyse disability trends over the 1980s-1990s in gender and race groups of early retirement ages in USA.

Methods: Disability trends for white and black males and females aged 65-69 and 70+ are analysed using the 1982-1999 NLTCS. Disability is analysed at three levels (instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), activities of daily living (ADL), and institutionalisation).

The role of oxidative damage in mitochondria during aging: a review.

Aging is a complex process (or series of processes). Recent evidence suggests that several of its most important mechanisms are linked by means of cellular damage caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS). Oxidative damage may be a major factor in the loss of physiological functions that occur in degenerative diseases and aging.

Dose-dependent effect of melatonin on life span and spontaneous tumor incidence in female SHR mice.

From the age of 3 months until their natural death, female Swiss-derived SHR mice were given melatonin with their drinking water (2 or 20mg/l) for 5 consecutive days every month. Intact mice served as controls. There were 54 mice in each group.