Transitioning an In-Person Survey of Older Adults to Multimode Data Collection.

Objectives: The first 3 rounds of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) were in-person. Preparing for Round Four (R4), NSHAP began developing ways to collect complex questionnaire and biomeasure data remotely. R4 was scheduled to begin in 2020, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, NSHAP delayed R4 data collection and instead conducted a study on respondents' experiences during the pandemic, as well as pretests to strengthen NSHAP's remote data collection capability.

Which Social Variables Predict Diabetes Onset? Robust Findings in Two National Surveys.

Background And Objectives: The role of social factors in diabetes onset has been obscured by wide variation in their conceptualization and operationalization. We apply 3 theoretical frameworks to categorize social relationship variables along several dimensions and identify which dimension(s) are robustly associated with incident diabetes in the older adult population.

Research Design And Methods: The National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (n = 2,365) and the Health and Retirement Study (n =11,824) provided longitudinal data from 57 to 90-year-old respondents over a 4- to 5-year period.

A force-sensitive mutation reveals a non-canonical role for dynein in anaphase progression.

The diverse roles of the dynein motor in shaping microtubule networks and cargo transport complicate in vivo analysis of its functions significantly. To address this issue, we have generated a series of missense mutations in Drosophila Dynein heavy chain. We show that mutations associated with human neurological disease cause a range of defects, including impaired cargo trafficking in neurons.

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.

Examining the Longitudinal Relationship Between Olfactory Dysfunction and Frailty in Community-Dwelling, older US Adults.

Objective: Olfactory dysfunction is a "canary in the coalmine" for aging conditions. We evaluated olfactory dysfunction as a biomarker of early frailty in older adults living in the United States.

Study Design: Prospective, longitudinal, nationally representative study.