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Weight discrimination has adverse effects on health that include increasing the risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes. Preliminary evidence suggests a positive association between weight discrimination and diagnosed diabetes; however, it is unknown whether psychosocial resources may buffer this association. In logistic regressions stratified by gender, we examined links between weight discrimination and diabetes among a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults (the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project; N = 2,794 adults age 50 and older in 2015-16). We also tested the extent to which trait-resilience and social support from a spouse/partner, family, and friends buffered any observed association. We adjusted for known predictors of diabetes (age, race/ethnicity, Body Mass Index) and conducted sensitivity analyses restricted to men and women with obesity. Net of covariates, in the overall sample, weight discrimination was associated with significantly greater odds of having ever had diabetes among women (OR = 2.00, 95% CI [1.15, 3.47]), but not men. Among women with obesity, weight discrimination was only significantly associated with greater odds of diabetes for those with low resilience (OR = 1.84, 95% CI [1.01, 3.35]). Among men overall, weight discrimination was associated with lower odds of diabetes for those with high family support (OR = 0.03, 95% CI [0.003, 0.25]) as well as those with high friend support (OR = 0.34, 95% CI [0.13, 0.91]); similar effects were observed in men with obesity. These novel findings evince a role for psychosocial resources in buffering associations between weight discrimination and diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Age-related olfactory loss (presbyosmia) is a prevalent sensory impairment with a large public health impact. In cross-sectional analyses, we found striking health disparities in olfactory function among older U.S. adults. Here, we report a 5-year follow-up to determine the magnitude of within-person olfactory decline.Methods: The National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) interviewed a probability sample of home-dwelling older U.S. adults (57-85 years) in 2005-2006 (Wave 1) and reinterviewed them in 2010-2011 (Wave 2), assessing demographics, social life, and health, including olfaction. Odor identification was measured with a 5-item version of the Sniffin' Sticks (0-5 correct). Fourteen hundred and thirty-six respondents provided olfaction data in both waves. Multivariate linear and logistic regression were used to model the association between change in olfactory performance and demographic, health, and psychosocial factors.Results: Odor identification declined most rapidly among older individuals (0.25 additional errors per 5 years for each decade of age, p < .001) and in men (0.17 additional errors per 5 years compared to women, p = .005). Among those with perfect scores in Wave 1, African Americans declined more rapidly than Whites (p = .04). Neither socioeconomic status, health conditions, cognition, mental health, alcohol use nor smoking was associated with change in olfaction (p > .05, all).Conclusions: The rate of olfactory decline increases with age and is greater among men than women despite adjusting for differences in psychosocial and health conditions, indicating physiologic factors as drivers. African Americans are more likely to experience initial olfactory decline, consistent with an earlier onset of aging among this subgroup. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. Sensory function, a critical component of quality of life, generally declines with age and influences health, physical activity, and social function. Sensory measures collected in Wave 2 of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) survey focused on the personal impact of sensory function in the home environment and included: subjective assessment of vision, hearing, and touch, information on relevant home conditions and social sequelae as well as an improved objective assessment of odor detection. Method. Summary data were generated for each sensory category, stratified by age (62-90 years of age) and gender, with a focus on function in the home setting and the social consequences of sensory decrements in each modality. Results. Among both men and women, older age was associated with self-reported impairment of vision, hearing, and pleasantness of light touch. Compared with women, men reported significantly worse hearing and found light touch less appealing. There were no gender differences for vision. Overall, hearing loss seemed to have a greater impact on social function than did visual impairment. Discussion. Sensory function declines across age groups, with notable gender differences for hearing and light touch. Further analysis of sensory measures from NSHAP Wave 2 may provide important information on how sensory declines are related to health, social function, quality of life, morbidity, and mortality in this nationally representative sample of older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) included five unique mental health measures in Waves 1 and 2 that researchers can use to measure the overall emotional health of participants: depressive symptoms, happiness-unhappiness, anxiety symptoms, perceived stress, and felt loneliness. For each, we detail the rationale for its development and explain how to score, analyze, and interpret results. Method. NSHAP developed its measures by modifying traditional short-form scales to improve response efficiency and reduce respondent burden. Scoring protocols and interpretations were developed for each measure. U.S. population estimates for older adults born between 1920 and 1947 were generated using age-eligible samples from Waves 1 and 2. Results. NSHAP's protocols yielded U.S. prevalence rates similar to other nationally representative studies of older adults and comparable between waves. Higher estimates of anxiety symptoms and perceived stress in Wave 2 compared with Wave 1 were explained by age, administration mode, and time period. Analytic strategies for longitudinal analyses are provided. In Wave 2, mental health generally was worse at older ages, with women having more symptoms at younger ages than men. Women had fewer anxiety symptoms at the oldest ages. Discussion. NSHAP's mental health measures were successfully integrated into the project's survey and showed acceptable external reliability as well as moderately stable individual characteristics across the 5 years between Waves 1 and 2. Depressive symptoms and unhappiness may form a mental health cluster in the elderly, distinct from anxiety symptoms, perceived stress, and felt loneliness. Gender differences in age-specific patterns of mental health were evident using the exact age of participants rather than the traditional decade groupings. Administration mode and time period (between 2005-2006 and 2010-2011) were determined to be potential confounds that need to be accommodated in longitudinal analyses of aging, whereas sample composition was not an issue for interpreting mental health measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. We present the novel urine collection method used during in-home interviews of a large population representative of older adults in the United States (aged 62-91, the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project). We also present a novel assay method for accurately measuring urinary peptides oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (AVP), hormones that regulate social behaviors, stress, and kidney function. Method. Respondents in a randomized substudy (N = 1,882) used airtight containers to provide urine specimens that were aliquoted, stored under frozen refrigerant packs and mailed overnight for frozen storage (-80 °C). Assays for OT, AVP, and creatinine, including freeze-thaw cycles, were refined and validated. Weighted values estimated levels in the older U.S. population. Results. Older adults had lower OT, but higher AVP, without the marked gender differences seen in young adults. Mild dehydration, indicated by creatinine, specific gravity, acidity, and AVP, produced concentrated urine that interfered with the OT assay, yielding falsely high values (18% of OT). Creatinine levels (>1.4mg/ml) identified such specimens that were diluted to solve the problem. In contrast, the standard AVP assay was unaffected (97% interpretable) and urine acidity predicted specimens with low OT concentrations. OT and AVP assays tolerated 2 freeze-thaw cycles, making this protocol useful in a variety of field conditions. Discussion. These novel protocols yielded interpretable urinary OT and AVP values, with sufficient variation for analyzing their social and physiological associations. The problem of mild dehydration is also likely common in animal field studies, which may also benefit from these collection and assay protocols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. Sex hormones affect physical, mental, and social health, yet their role in mediating social effects on aging is understudied. To facilitate such analyses with the National Social Life, Health & Aging Project Wave 2, we summarize the conceptual background, collection protocols, laboratory assays, and data analysis strategies for biologically active (free) levels of testosterone, estradiol, progesterone, and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). Method. Saliva from passive drool was collected from returning Wave 1 respondents and non-respondents as well as their partners during an in-home interview. Specimens were frozen and sent to Dresden LabService GmbH for duplicate assays of biologically active steroids using identical assay kits from National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) Wave 1 (SaliCap, Catalog No. RE69995). Overall, 2,772 testosterone, 2,504 estradiol, 2,714 progesterone, and 2,800 DHEA measurements are publically available for Wave 2 analyses. Through a series of weighted linear regressions, all 4 steroids are compared by gender and age and to Wave 1 measurements. Results. Men had higher levels of both free testosterone and progesterone than women; women and men had the same levels of estradiol and DHEA. Both free testosterone and DHEA decreased with age. We also found significant wave effects for all 4 sex hormones. Conclusion. NSHAP Waves 1 and 2 are the first U.S. probability sample studies to measure these 4 salivary sex hormones simultaneously, providing individual profiles 5 years apart. Wave 2 data demonstrate differences by gender and trends by age that are similar to those found in other saliva-based and serum-based studies of free steroid levels. The differences between waves arising from the change in assay laboratory need to be adjusted in future longitudinal analyses using NSHAP Wave 1 and Wave 2 steroid data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To investigate the sense of smell, including sensitivity and odor identification, and characterize the U.S. national prevalence of olfactory dysfunction in older adults, thereby facilitating further investigation of the substantial risks for older adults associated with this basic sensory ability. Method. The sense of smell was evaluated using the Olfactory Function Field Exam (OFFE), a measure designed specifically for field research, which assesses 3 components of olfaction: sensitivity to n-butanol (a standard testing odorant) and androstadienone (AND, a key social odor produced by humans), as well as the ability to identify odors. Respondents were randomly selected from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project Wave 2 sample to receive the OFFE (n = 2,304), and 2,212 consented to participate. Results. In the U.S. population aged 62-90, n-butanol detection ability was significantly worse at older ages (ordinal logistic regression, p < .001); however, there was no difference in detection ability between genders (p = .60). AND detection ability was also significantly worse at older ages (p = .003), but in contrast to n-butanol, women outperformed men (p = .001). As expected, odor identification ability was worse in older people than in younger (p < .001), and women were more accurate than men (p = .001). Discussion. We report for the first time 3 facets of olfactory function and its association with age and gender in a representative sample of U.S. older adults. Future analyses of these data are needed to elucidate the sense of smell's role in physical, social, and mental health with aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. Provide recommendations for researchers on the use of the Big Five personality battery in the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), and ensure that the battery does proxy the Big Five. Also, describe the levels of Big Five traits across gender and age. Method. We used an Exploratory Structural Equation Model (ESEM) to analyze NHSAP's personality battery, comparing NSHAP with the National Longitudinal Study of Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Results. ESEM revealed a 5-factor structure in the NSHAP battery, but with considerable cross-loadings. When these cross-loadings were not included in the model, model fit notably worsened. Reliabilities of Big Five scales were comparable to the HRS and MIDUS, even though NSHAP's battery is shorter. Women were considerably more Agreeable than men, although this gender gap closed among the oldest in the sample (80 years or older). Discussion. Researchers will be able to make use of NSHAP's personality battery to examine a range of social, biological, and psychological factors at older ages, in light of individuals' general traits. We recommend models which allow for cross-loadings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The health and survival benefits of social embeddedness have been widely documented across social species, but the underlying biophysiological mechanisms have not been elucidated in the general population. We assessed the process by which social isolation increases the risk for all-cause and chronic disease mortality through proinflammatory mechanisms. Using the 18-year mortality follow-up data (n = 6,729) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1988–2006) on Social Network Index and multiple markers of chronic inflammation, we conducted survival analyses and found evidence that supports the mediation role of chronic inflammation in the link between social isolation and mortality. A high-risk fibrinogen level and cumulative inflammation burden may be particularly important in this link. There are notable sex differences in the mortality effects of social isolation in that they are greater for men and can be attributed in part to their heightened inflammatory responses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]