Midlife and late-life environmental exposures on dementia risk in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study: The modifying effects of ApoE.

Introduction: Late-life air pollution exposure is associated with an increased risk for dementia, with this effect exacerbated among apolipoprotein E-4 (ApoE-4) carriers. However, whether midlife occupational exposures likewise influence dementia outcomes, and varies as a function of ApoE-4 status is unknown.

Methods: Using data from 3814 participants in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS), we employed weighted logistic regression to evaluate associations between midlife occupational respiratory exposures and late-life air pollution on all-cause dementia risk, stratified by ApoE-4 status.

Linking sequences of exposure to residential (dis)advantage, individual socioeconomic status, and health.

Life course theories suggest that the relationship between residential (dis)advantage and health is best understood by examining the ordering and duration of cumulative exposures across the life course. This study employs sequence and cluster analysis on two decades of residential histories linked to the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin to define typologies of exposure to residential (dis)advantage and use these typologies to predict self-rated fair/poor health. Exposure to residential (dis)advantage is mostly stable across the adult life course and greater disadvantage predicts fair/poor health.

Constructing Residential Histories in a General Population-Based Representative Sample.

Research on neighborhoods and health typically measures neighborhood context at a single point in time. However, neighborhood exposures accumulate over the life course, influenced by both residential mobility and neighborhood change, with potential implications for estimating the impact of neighborhoods on health. Commercial databases offer fine-grained longitudinal residential address data that can enrich life-course spatial epidemiology research, and validated methods for reconstructing residential histories from these databases are needed.

Understanding Geographic Disparities in Mortality.

A rich literature shows that early-life conditions shape later-life outcomes, including health and migration events. However, analyses of geographic disparities in mortality outcomes focus almost exclusively on contemporaneously measured geographic place (e.g.

Social insurance programs and later-life mortality: Evidence from new deal relief spending.

A growing body of research explores the long-run effects of social programs and welfare spending. However, evidence linking welfare support in early life with longevity is limited. We add to this literature by evaluating the effect of in-utero and early-life exposure to the largest increases in welfare spending in the US history under the New Deal programs.

Deaths, Disparities, and Cumulative (Dis)Advantage: How Social Inequities Produce an Impairment Paradox in Later Life.

Background: Research on health across the life course consistently documents widening racial and socioeconomic disparities from childhood through adulthood, followed by stabilization or convergence in later life. This pattern appears to contradict expectations set by cumulative (dis)advantage (CAD) theory. Informed by the punctuated equilibrium perspective, we examine the relationship between midlife health and subsequent health change and mortality and consider the impact of earlier socioeconomic exposures on observed disparities.

How are social determinants of health integrated into epigenetic research? A systematic review.

Objective: We systematically review the literature on social epigenetics, examining how empirical research to date has conceptualized and operationalized social determinants of health (SDOH).

Methods: Using comprehensive search procedures, we identified studies that consider the impact of SDOH on DNA methylation (DNAm), the most common measure of epigenetic change in research on human adult populations. We analyzed the studies to determine: 1) which populations and environments have been investigated in the literature; 2) how SDOH are defined and operationalized; 3) which SDOH have been linked to DNAm; and 4) what lessons from the SDOH literature can be better integrated into future studies exploring the social determinants of health and epigenetic outcomes.

Where and When: Sharpening the lens on geographic disparities in mortality.

Life course theories suggest that geographic disparities in mortality may reflect a history of place-based exposures rather than (or in addition to) contemporaneous exposures; yet, few studies examined early life place exposures and later life mortality in the US due to data limitations. The aim of this study is to assess and compare the importance of state of birth and state of residence in predicting mortality for adults over age 50 in the US. Using nationally representative data of nearly 100,000 adults over age 50 from the National Longitudinal Mortality Study, we estimated individual mortality risk using multi-level logistic regression with state of birth and state of residence as second-level random effects.

The Immigrant Health Differential in the Context of Racial and Ethnic Disparities: The Case of Diabetes.

Purpose: Social and economic disparities between racial/ethnic groups are a feature of the American context into which immigrants are incorporated, and a key determinant of population health. We ask whether racial/ethnic disparities in diabetes vary by nativity and whether native-immigrant disparities in diabetes vary by race and over time in the United States.

Methods: Using the 2000-2015 National Health Interview Survey, we estimate logistic regressions to examine the interaction of race/ethnicity, nativity, and duration in the U.

Robust Respondents and Lost Limitations: The Implications of Nonrandom Missingness for the Estimation of Health Trajectories.

Objective: We offer a strategy for quantifying the impact of mortality and attrition on inferences from later-life health trajectory models.

Method: Using latent class growth analysis (LCGA), we identify functional limitation trajectory classes in the Health and Retirement Study. We compare results from complete case and full information maximum likelihood (FIML) analyses, and demonstrate a method for producing upper- and lower-bound estimates of the impact of attrition on results.

Work Disability Among Native-born and Foreign-born Americans: On Origins, Health, and Social Safety Nets.

Public debates about both immigration policy and social safety net programs are increasingly contentious. However, little research has explored differences in health within America's diverse population of foreign-born workers, and the effect of these workers on public benefit programs is not well understood. We investigate differences in work disability by nativity and origins and describe the mix of health problems associated with receiving Social Security Disability Insurance benefits.

A Quiescent Phase in Human Mortality? Exploring the Ages of Least Vulnerability.

Demographic studies of mortality often emphasize the two ends of the lifespan, focusing on the declining hazard after birth or the increasing risk of death at older ages. We call attention to the intervening phase, when humans are least vulnerable to the force of mortality, and consider its features in both evolutionary and historical perspectives. We define this quiescent phase (Q-phase) formally, estimate its bounds using life tables for Swedish cohorts born between 1800 and 1920, and describe changes in the morphology of the Q-phase.

Where does the neighborhood go? Trust, social engagement, and health among older adults in Baltimore City.

Trust is often cited as a necessary predecessor of social engagement, and a public-health good. We question those suppositions through analysis of the life histories of lower-income older adults aging in place in Baltimore. These people desired to continue living independently, but also expressed a complex mix of trust and mistrust in their neighbors, neighborhoods, and broader environments.

Life Expectancy Among U.S.-born and Foreign-born Older Adults in the United States: Estimates From Linked Social Security and Medicare Data.

In recent decades, the geographic origins of America's foreign-born population have become increasingly diverse. The sending countries of the U.S.

Why do lifespan variability trends for the young and old diverge? A perturbation analysis.

Background: Variation in lifespan has followed strikingly different trends for the young and old: while total lifespan variability has decreased as life expectancy at birth has risen, the variability conditional on survival to older ages has increased. These diverging trends reflect changes in the underlying demographic parameters determining age-specific mortality.

Objective: We ask why the variation in the ages at death after survival to adult ages has followed a different trend than the variation at younger ages, and aim to explain the divergence in terms of the age pattern of historical mortality changes.

Geriatric syndromes and functional status in NSHAP: rationale, measurement, and preliminary findings.

Introduction: The geriatric functional measures and syndromes collected 5 years apart in Waves 1 and 2 of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) data set included: difficulty with activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living, the timed up and go, a 3-m timed walk, repeated chair stands, self-reported physical activity, accelerometry-assessed (in)activity, falls, fractures, and frailty. The purpose of this paper was to describe the data collection methods and report preliminary population estimates for each measures.

Method: Frequencies, means, or medians were estimated for each measure stratified by age and gender, using the age-eligible samples in Wave 1 (n = 3,005) and Wave 2 (n = 3,196).

Returns on lifetime investments in children in Egypt.

Parental expectations about the companionship and assistance they will receive in later life from their children are key considerations in family formation decisions. We explore patterns of parents' investment and the support and contact they receive from adult children in Egypt, where fertility is falling and sources of support at all life stages are in flux. Using data from a survey of older adults in Ismailia governorate, we consider parents' past investments in childbearing, child survival, and children's education and marriage, as well as recent assistance to adult children via housing, care for grandchildren, gifts, and money.

Gender and Material Transfers between Older Parents and Children in Ismailia, Egypt.

In Egypt, kin relations have been governed by a patriarchal contract, which defines expectations for intergenerational support along gendered lines. Social changes may be disrupting these customs and bringing attention to the ways gender may influence intergenerational support in rapidly changing contexts. Using data from 4,465 parent-child dyads in Ismailia, Egypt, we examined whether intergenerational material transfers favored women over men and whether gaps in needs and endowments accounted for gender differences in transfers.