Gender differences in factors associated with change in physical functioning in old age: a 6-year longitudinal study.

We compared 356 older men and women and found that income, education, and marital status had significantly stronger associations with 6-year change in functioning for men; internal health locus of control was stronger for women. Large but not significant differences occurred for age, perceived health, and days going out per week (stronger for women) plus exercise and smoking (stronger for men). We found no difference for ethnicity, chronic conditions, and social contacts. Gender specific models incorporating factors amenable to change predicted significantly higher follow-up functioning for those with positive health behaviors, supporting the value of preventive interventions.

Physical activity and depression: evidence from the Alameda County Study.

The relation between level of physical activity and risk of subsequent depression was examined using three waves of data from the Alameda County Study. Among subjects who were not depressed at baseline, those who reported a low activity level were at significantly greater risk for depression at the 1974 follow-up than were those who reported high levels of activity at baseline. Adjustments for physical health, socioeconomic status, life events, social supports, and other health habits did not affect the association appreciably. Associations between 1965-1974 changes in activity level and depression in the 1983 follow-up suggest that the risk of depression can be altered by changes in exercise habits, although these associations were not statistically significant after adjustment for covariates. These results provide somewhat stronger evidence for an activity-depression link than do previous studies, and they argue for the inclusion of exercise programs as part of community mental health programs, as well as for further studies that focus on the relation between life-style and mental health.

Psychological distress and mortality: evidence from the Alameda County Study.

The relationship between psychological distress, in this case depression, and subsequent risk of mortality is examined using data from the Alameda County (California) Study, an 18-yr, three-wave prospective investigation of psychosocial risk factors and health. The results indicate no relationship between psychological morbidity and all-cause mortality or specific causes of death. While these results are discordant with those reported from a majority of studies of psychiatric patients, they are concordant with a majority of community-based studies of the general adult population. Possible methodologic explanations are discussed which might account for disparate results reported to date, in particular failure to control for the effects of co-morbidity of somatic disorders and socioeconomic status.

Psychosocial predictors of depression. Prospective evidence from the human population laboratory studies.

The association between status attributes, personal resources, life stress, physical health, and occurrence of depressive symptoms nine years later was assessed by the 1965 Human Population Laboratory survey of a random sample of 6,928 adults in Alameda County, California, and by a subsequent follow-up survey in 1974. In multiple logistic analyses, depressive symptoms at baseline, low education, physical disability or presence of chronic conditions, poor perceived health, personal uncertainty, residential move, job loss, money problems, anomy, and social isolation were independently associated with increased risk of depressive symptoms at the nine-year follow-up. Age, low income, ethnicity, marital status, separation or divorce, and health practices at baseline were unrelated to depressive symptoms. These results underscore both the multifactorial nature of depression and the importance of prospective analyses of depressive phenomena.

Alcohol consumption and mortality in Alameda County.

The association between level of alcohol consumption and 15-year mortality, focusing particularly on the possible protective effect of light drinking compared to abstention, was studied in a representative population sample of 6928 residents of Alameda County, California. Because abstainers differ from light, moderate and heavy drinkers on a number of demographic, physical, and psychosocial characteristics, the role of these as confounders of the alcohol/mortality association was examined. Using multiple logistic models, the mortality experience of abstainers, moderate drinkers, heavy drinkers and very heavy drinkers was compared with that of light drinkers. Among men only, very heavy drinkers were at significantly greater risk of death from all causes than were light drinkers (OR = 2.5, p less than 0.01). Neither abstainers nor other drinkers were at significantly higher risk of death from ischemic heart disease than were light drinkers. This pattern of results persisted with adjustment for 11 covariates of alcohol consumption in addition to age.