Association of optimism and pessimism with inflammation and hemostasis in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA).

Objective: To investigate the association between optimism/pessimism and concentrations of seven inflammation and hemostasis markers. Optimism and pessimism are associated with cardiovascular disease mortality and progression; however, the biological mechanism remains unclear.

Methods: This cross-sectional study used data from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), a study of 6814 persons aged 45 to 84 years with no history of clinical cardiovascular disease.

Effects of a supportive or an unsupportive audience on biological and psychological responses to stress.

Although social support is related to substantial benefits for health and well-being, research has uncovered qualifications to its benefits. In a test of the psychological and biological impact of an audience on responses to laboratory stress challenges, 183 participants going through the Trier Social Stress Test experienced either (a) an unsupportive audience, (b) a supportive audience, or (c) no audience. Both audience conditions produced significantly stronger cortisol, heart rate, and blood pressure responses to the stress tasks, relative to the no-audience control, even though the supportive audience was rated as supportive.

Modeling multisystem biological risk in young adults: The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study.

Although much prior research has focused on identifying the roles of major regulatory systems in health risks, the concept of allostatic load (AL) focuses on the importance of a more multisystems view of health risks. How best to operationalize allostatic load, however, remains the subject of some debate. We sought to test a hypothesized metafactor model of allostatic load composed of a number of biological system factors, and to investigate model invariance across sex and ethnicity.

Heart rate recovery after cognitive challenge is preserved with age.

Objective: To investigate the effect of age on heart rate recovery (HRR) from cognitive challenge.

Background: Aging is an independent risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease. HRR from exercise is an established predictor of cardiac morbidity and mortality, and evidence suggests that HRR from cognitive challenge is predictive of cardiac morbidity as well.

Productive activities and development of frailty in older adults.

Objective: Our aim was to examine whether engagement in productive activities, including volunteering, paid work, and childcare, protects older adults against the development of geriatric frailty.

Methods: Data from the first (1988) and second (1991) waves of the MacArthur Study of Successful Aging, a prospective cohort study of high-functioning older adults aged 70-79 years (n = 1,072), was used to examine the hypothesis that engagement in productive activities is associated with lower levels of frailty 3 years later.

Results: Engagement in productive activities at baseline was associated with a lower cumulative odds of frailty 3 years later in unadjusted models (odds ratio [OR] = 0.

Measures of social position and cortisol secretion in an aging population: findings from the Whitehall II study.

Objective: To examine whether dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis associated with disadvantaged social position in working populations also occurs in older age groups.

Methods: This study examines the association of several indicators of social position with two measures of cortisol secretion, a product of the HPA axis. We examined the cortisol awakening response (CAR), and slope of the decline in cortisol secretion across the day.

Disability trends among older Americans: National Health And Nutrition Examination Surveys, 1988-1994 and 1999-2004.

Objectives: We investigated trends in disability among older Americans from 1988 through 2004 to test the hypothesis that more recent cohorts show increased burdens of disability.

Methods: We used data from 2 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (1988-1994 and 1999-2004) to assess time trends in basic activities of daily living, instrumental activities, mobility, and functional limitations for adults aged 60 years and older. We assessed whether changes could be explained by sociodemographic, body weight, or behavioral factors.

Cognitive functioning is related to physical functioning in a longitudinal study of women at midlife.

Background: Studies have reported declines with age in cognitive or physical functioning, but rarely identify whether these are parallel or linked events in the same study. Furthermore, most research in this area has focused on persons in late life rather than midlife.

Objective: The objective of the study was to determine (1) if cognitive functioning was related to physical functioning and whether this relationship persisted after adjustment for age, menopause status, metabolic status, depression and socioeconomic resources, and (2) if changes in physical functioning were associated with changes in cognitive functioning over a 4-year follow-up period.

Neighbourhood socioeconomic status and biological 'wear and tear' in a nationally representative sample of US adults.

Objective: To assess whether neighbourhood socioeconomic status (NSES) is independently associated with disparities in biological 'wear and tear' measured by allostatic load in a nationally representative sample of US adults.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Population-based US survey, the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), merged with US census data describing respondents' neighbourhoods.

Evidence for neurocognitive plasticity in at-risk older adults: the experience corps program.

Objective: To determine whether Experience Corps (EC), a social service program, would improve age-vulnerable executive functions and increase activity in brain regions in a high-risk group through increased cognitive and physical activity.

Methods: Eight community-dwelling, older female volunteers and nine matched wait-list controls were recruited to serve in the ongoing EC: Baltimore program in three elementary schools. We employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) preintervention and postintervention to examine whether EC volunteers improved executive function and showed increased activity in the prefrontal cortex relative to controls.

Allostatic load and frailty in older adults.

Objectives: To examine the association between allostatic load (AL), an index of multisystem physiological dysregulation, and frailty development over a 3-year follow-up in a sample of older adults.

Design: Longitudinal cohort study.

Setting: Community.

Prospective association between C-reactive protein and fatigue in the coronary artery risk development in young adults study.

Background: Fatigue is highly prevalent and causes serious disruption in quality of life. Although the underlying biological mechanism is unknown, increases in inflammation have been implicated. This prospective study examined the association between C-reactive protein (CRP), a biomarker of systemic inflammation, and fatigue 5 years later.

Trajectories of cognitive function in late life in the United States: demographic and socioeconomic predictors.

This study used mixed-effects modeling of data from a national sample of 6,476 US adults born before 1924, who were tested 5 times between 1993 and 2002 on word recall, serial 7's, and other mental status items to determine demographic and socioeconomic predictors of trajectories of cognitive function in older Americans. Mean decline with aging in total cognition score (range, 0-35; standard deviation, 6.00) was 4.

Waist-hip-ratio as a predictor of all-cause mortality in high-functioning older adults.

Purpose: The relationship between obesity and mortality in older adults is debated, with concern that body mass index (BMI) may be an imperfect measure of obesity in this age group. We assessed the relationship between three measures of obesity and all-cause mortality in a group of healthy older adults.

Methods: We analyzed data from the MacArthur Successful Aging Study, a longitudinal study of high-functioning men and women, ages 70-79 years at baseline.

Association of salivary cortisol circadian pattern with cynical hostility: multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis.

Objective: To determine if cynical hostility is associated with alterations in diurnal profiles of cortisol. Hostility has been linked to cardiovascular disease but the biological mechanisms mediating this association remain unknown.

Methods: Up to 18 measures of salivary cortisol taken over 3 days were obtained from each of 936 participants in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA).

Association of socioeconomic status with inflammation markers in black and white men and women in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study.

Inflammatory processes are implicated in a number of diseases for which there are known socioeconomic status (SES) disparities, including heart disease and diabetes. Growing evidence also suggests SES gradients in levels of peripheral blood markers of inflammation. However, we know little about potential gender and racial/ethnic differences in associations between SES and inflammation, despite the fact that the burden of inflammation-related diseases varies by gender and race.

Relationship of early life stress and psychological functioning to blood pressure in the CARDIA study.

Objective: Low childhood socioeconomic status (CSES) and a harsh early family environment have been linked with health disorders in adulthood. In this study, the authors present a model to help explain these links and relate the model to blood pressure change over a 10-year period in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults sample.

Design: Participants (N = 2,738) completed measures of childhood family environment, parental education, health behavior, and adult negative emotionality.

Race/ethnicity and telomere length in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.

Telomere length has emerged as a marker of exposure to oxidative stress and aging. Race/ethnic differences in telomere length have been infrequently investigated. Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) was assessed 981 white, black and Hispanic men and women aged 45-84 years participating in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.

Education differentials by race and ethnicity in the diagnosis and management of hypercholesterolemia: a national sample of U.S. adults (NHANES 1999-2002).

Objectives: To examine education differentials in screening, awareness, treatment and control of hypercholesterolemia overall and in 3 race/ethnic groups.

Methods: We analyzed data for a nationally representative sample of 8,429 men and women ages 20 to 85 years, self-reported as white, black, Mexican American, or other race/ethnicity, who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1999-2002.

Results: Participants with < high school education were 2.

Neighborhoods and cumulative biological risk profiles by race/ethnicity in a national sample of U.S. adults: NHANES III.

Purpose: To examine race/ethnic-specific patterns of association between neighborhood socioeconomic status (NSES) and a cumulative biological risk index in a nationally representative population.

Methods: The study sample included 13,199 white, black, and Mexican-American men and women, ages 20 and older, who attended the National Health and Examination Survey examination (1988-1994). Neighborhoods were defined as census tracts and linked to U.

Poverty and biological risk: the earlier "aging" of the poor.

Background: We examined age differences in levels of biological risk factors in the U.S. population by poverty status.

Exploring the effects of an "everyday" activity program on executive function and memory in older adults: Experience Corps.

Purpose: There is little empirical translation of multimodal cognitive activity programs in "real-world" community-based settings. This study sought to demonstrate in a short-term pilot randomized trial that such an activity program improves components of cognition critical to independent function among sedentary older adults at greatest risk.

Design And Methods: We randomized 149 older adults to Experience Corps (EC) or a wait-list control arm.

Can the Wisdom of Aging be Activated and Make a Difference Societally?

The Experience Corps®, a community-based intergenerational program, was developed to promote the health of older adults, while simultaneously addressing unmet social and academic needs in public elementary schools. The model was designed to draw on, and potentially activate, the wisdom of older adults. This paper explores the nature of wisdom-related knowledge and how older adults may apply such knowledge when tutoring and mentoring young children, as well as the potential for the intergenerational transmission of wisdom from the older adult volunteers to the school children being mentored by them.