Accelerated epigenetic aging and prospective morbidity and mortality among U.S. veterans.

Epigenetic measures of aging derived from DNA methylation are promising biomarkers associated with prospective morbidity and mortality, but require validation in real-world medical settings. Using data from 2,216 post-9/11 veterans, we examined whether accelerated DunedinPACE aging scores were associated with chronic disease morbidity, predicted healthcare costs, and mortality assessed over an average of 13.1 years of follow up in VA electronic health records.

Posttraumatic stress disorder, trauma, and accelerated biological aging among post-9/11 veterans.

People who experience trauma and develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are at increased risk for poor health. One mechanism that could explain this risk is accelerated biological aging, which is associated with the accumulation of chronic diseases, disability, and premature mortality. Using data from 2309 post-9/11 United States military veterans who participated in the VISN 6 MIRECC's Post-Deployment Mental Health Study, we tested whether PTSD and trauma exposure were associated with accelerated rate of biological aging, assessed using a validated DNA methylation (DNAm) measure of epigenetic aging-DunedinPACE.

Do polygenic indices capture "direct" effects on child externalizing behavior? Within-family analyses in two longitudinal birth cohorts.

Behaviors and disorders characterized by difficulties with self-regulation, such as problematic substance use, antisocial behavior, and symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), incur high costs for individuals, families, and communities. These externalizing behaviors often appear early in the life course and can have far-reaching consequences. Researchers have long been interested in direct measurements of genetic risk for externalizing behaviors, which can be incorporated alongside other known risk factors to improve efforts at early identification and intervention.

Which Types of Stress Are Associated With Accelerated Biological Aging? Comparing Perceived Stress, Stressful Life Events, Childhood Adversity, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Objective: Stress and stressful events are associated with poorer health; however, there are multiple ways to conceptualize and measure stress and stress responses. One physiological mechanism through which stress could result in poorer health is accelerated biological aging. This study tested which types of stress were associated with accelerated biological aging in adulthood.

Deep-seated psychological histories of COVID-19 vaccine hesitance and resistance.

To design effective pro-vaccination messaging, it is important to know "where people are coming from"-the personal experiences and long-standing values, motives, lifestyles, preferences, emotional tendencies, and information-processing capacities of people who end up resistant or hesitant toward vaccination. We used prospective data from a 5-decade cohort study spanning childhood to midlife to construct comprehensive early-life psychological histories of groups who differed in their vaccine intentions in months just before COVID vaccines became available in their country. Vaccine-resistant and vaccine-hesitant participants had histories of adverse childhood experiences that foster mistrust, longstanding mental-health problems that foster misinterpretation of messaging, and early-emerging personality traits including tendencies toward extreme negative emotions, shutting down mentally under stress, nonconformism, and fatalism about health.

Demographic transition and population aging with Caribbean nation states.

This paper considers the role which the demographic parameters of fertility, mortality and migration will play on the pace and concentration of aging within the context of a developing region. This paper examines the demographic transition and analyzes historic and projected data for the development patterns of the anglophone nation states of the Caribbean. Trends in fertility, mortality, and migration are contrasted among the larger (Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad/Tobago), mid-sized (Bahamas, Barbados, Belize) and smaller (Antigua/Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts/Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent/Grenadines) states.

Evidence of the dose effects of an antitobacco counteradvertising campaign.

Objective: The objectives were to assess the cumulative effects of exposure to multiple antitobacco advertisements shown over a 22-month period on smoking uptake, and determine if there is evidence of a dose effect and how this effect operates through response to the campaign's major message theme and antitobacco attitudes.

Methods: A follow-up telephone survey of persons ages 12-20 years was conducted after 22 months of the Florida "truth" antitobacco media campaign. Logistic regression analyses were used to estimate adjusted odds ratios for the likelihood that time-one nonsmokers would remain nonsmokers at time two by levels of confirmed advertisement awareness, self-reported influence of the campaign's message theme, and anti-tobacco industry manipulation attitudes.

A simple method for estimating age-specific rates from sequential cross sections.

I develop and demonstrate a simple formula for estimating age-specific event rates for a period from "before" and "after" cross sections. The general approach applies to a wide range of estimation problems in demography, the social sciences, and epidemiology. The method arises from the formal mathematics of unstable populations and is similar in spirit to "variable-r" methods.

Economic and fiscal implications of aging for subnational American governments.

This article begins with a brief review of the extensive literature dealing with the macroeconomic consequences of population aging in industrialized societies and places the question in the context of the political and economic framework of the United States. Next, we move to the fiscal ramifications of population aging for subnational units of government. The varying demographic sources of aging are then introduced and their economic implications are reviewed.

Retirement migration counties in the southeastern United States: geographic, demographic, and economic correlates.

This article is a brief empirical attempt to identify rural areas in the Southeast United States that have consistently attracted older migrants since 1950 and to ascertain the social, demographic, and geographic characteristics of these areas of destination that differentiate them from otherwise (initially) similar areas. These counties are followed over the successive censuses from 1950 through 1990, identifying those that have consistently experienced elderly in-migration at a rate substantially greater than the overall level. These retirement counties are concentrated in Florida, on the fringes of or adjacent to metropolitan areas or in mountain and coastal locations.

The Florida "truth" anti-tobacco media evaluation: design, first year results, and implications for planning future state media evaluations.

Objectives: To outline the design and present selected findings from the evaluation of a state counter-advertising, anti-tobacco media campaign. The appropriateness of the design for states developing media evaluations is discussed.

Design: Four cross sectional, telephone surveys of the 12--17 year old population were used to track and monitor advertising and campaign awareness, confirmed awareness, and receptivity.

Influence of a counteradvertising media campaign on initiation of smoking: the Florida "truth" campaign.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess the short-term effects of television advertisements from the Florida "truth" campaign on rates of smoking initiation.

Methods: A follow-up survey of young people aged 12 to 17 years (n = 1820) interviewed during the first 6 months of the advertising campaign was conducted. Logistic regression analyses were used to estimate the independent effects of the campaign on smoking initiation while other factors were controlled for.

The industry manipulation attitudes of smokers and nonsmokers.

A cross-sectional random sample was obtained of Florida youth between the ages of 12-17. Data were collected through a telephone survey after obtaining parent and child consent. Industry manipulation attitudes of three groups (self-identified nonsmokers who did not use cigarettes in the past 30 days, self-identified nonsmokers who used cigarettes in the past 30 days, and self-identified smokers who used cigarettes in the past 30 days) were compared.

Relationship dynamics, ethnicity and condom use among low-income women.

Context: Women's protection against HIV and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) depends upon their ability to negotiate safer sex. It is important to know how cultural norms and gender roles, which vary by ethnicity, may either constrain or encourage negotiation of condom use.

Methods: Questionnaires were completed by 393 low-income non-Hispanic black, Hispanic and non-Hispanic white women who were sexually active and attending family planning and STD clinics and other public health and social service centers in Miami in 1994 and 1995.

Three strikes and you're out: demographic analysis of mandatory prison sentencing.

Much of the debate about the costs and benefits of "three-strikes" laws for repeat felony offenders is implicitly demographic, relying on unexamined assumptions about prison population dynamics. However, even state-of-the-art analysis has omitted important demographic details. We construct a multistate life-table model of population flows to and from prisons, incorporating age-specific transition rates estimated from administrative data from Florida.

The impact of type of employment on women's use of prenatal-care services and family planning in urban Cebu, the Philippines.

This study re-evaluates the relationship of urban women's employment to their health-service and contraceptive use, drawing on data from the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey. Multivariate analyses reveal significant differences across types of work for the likelihood of both obtaining timely prenatal care and practicing contraception at one year postpartum. Wage workers in white-collar jobs are significantly more likely than those not employed for pay to have obtained prenatal care and are substantially more likely to have adopted a contraceptive method in the year following childbirth.

Magic Johnson and children's conceptions of AIDS.

Longitudinal data for a heterogeneous sample of 609 elementary school children are used to assess the long-term effects of Magic Johnson's announcement on children's HIV and AIDS conceptions. Four hypotheses are tested concerning these relationships, and background variables measured prior to Johnson's announcement are controlled. Findings suggest that Johnson's announcement increased children's HIV and AIDS knowledge and reduced their prejudice toward a hypothetical child with AIDS.

Factors associated with use of the female condom.

Black, Hispanic and white women recruited for an HIV prevention intervention were instructed in the use of the female condom and encouraged to try the device. Of the 231 women who completed the intervention, 29% tried the condom over the course of a month; 30% of those who tried it used it during at least half of their sexual encounters. Both ethnicity and age were associated with trying the device: Nearly 40% of black women and 30% of Hispanic women did so, compared with 18% of white women; 37% of those aged 25-34 tried the female condom, compared with 22% of women younger than 25.

The association between substance use, condom use and sexual risk among low-income women.

Substance use is frequently assumed to be associated with higher levels of sexual risk-taking and lower levels of condom use. An analysis of 668 black, Hispanic and white low-income women at public health and public assistance facilities in Miami show that 19% engaged in risky sexual behavior over the preceding six months, 24% in substance use and 31% in condom use. Overall, substance users are nearly four and one-half times more likely to take sexual risks than nonusers, but are about half as likely to have relied on condoms.

Geographic concentration of violence between intimate partners.

Objectives: To explore geographic patterns of violence between intimate partners in a metropolitan area with one of the highest injury mortality rates in the nation-Duval County, Florida, which includes the city of Jacksonville.

Methods: Using police reports of all serious violent incidents in Duval County in 1992 excluding robberies, the authors analyzed patterns in the location of the incidents. Only cases for which the relationship between the offender and victim was recorded were used.

Residential relocation and regional redistribution of the elderly in the USA and Germany.

This paper reviews some of the principal differences and similarities in the micgration and spatial redistribution behavior of the older populations of the USA and of Germany. The German situation has changed quite dramatically in recent years, as the consolidation of the former German Democratic Republic into the Federal Republic of Germany has altered the size, age structure, and, of particular interest here, the potential paths of population redistribution. The paper is divided into three distinct parts.

Impact of future cigarette smoking scenarios on mortality of the adult population in the United States, 2000-2050.

The prevalence of cigarette smoking in the United States has declined over the past few decades. However, some leveling-off in prevalence rates has been observed in recent years, and the rate for teenagers and young adults has even turned upward. This paper considers four alternative scenarios of future cigarette smoking patterns in the United States for the population 25 and over and measures the impact these different scenarios would have on excess mortality due to smoking and on the sex and age distributions of deaths.

Alcohol use among pedestrians and the odds of surviving an injury: evidence from Florida law enforcement data.

Alcohol consumption by pedestrians is widely recognized as a factor influencing the risk of being hit by a motor vehicle, but its effect on the likelihood of dying, given that a collision has occurred, is more uncertain. Studies of drivers find that alcohol increases the risk. Unlike previous studies based on clinical data, the present study is population-based and takes into account indicators of crash severity.