This study examined the socioeconomic pathways linking partnership status to physical functioning, assessed using objective measures of late life physical functioning, including peak flow and grip strength. Using Wave 4 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we ran multilevel models to examine the relationship between partnership status and physical function in late life, adjusting for social-network characteristics, socioeconomic factors, and health behaviours. We found a robust relationship between partnership status and physical function. Incorporating social-network characteristics, socioeconomic factors, and health behaviours showed independent robust relationships with physical function. Co-variates attenuated the impact of cohabitation, separation, and widowhood on physical function; robust effects were found for singlehood and divorce. Sex-segregated analyses suggest that associations between cohabitation, singlehood, divorce, and widowhood were larger for men than for women. Results suggest that social ties are important to improved physical function.

Participants in the Healthy Old People in Edinburgh (HOPE) study (N = 398) were assessed on Raven's Progressive Matrices and Logical Memory on up to three occasions. Covariates included education, social class, disease and medication status, blood pressure and study outcome. Raven's score declined linearly with age, whereas decline in Logical Memory was accelerating. There was significant variation in individuals' rates of decline for Ravens but not Logical Memory. Slope–intercept covariances were not significant. Those who later developed dementia already exhibited lower scores, more so for Logical Memory than Raven's. Death and study attrition were related to performance, again greater for Logical Memory. Conclusions: The HOPE approach of progressive screening is a feasible and practical method for studying healthy cognitive ageing. As predicted for an initially healthy sample, rates of decline were relatively homogeneous. The hypothesis of differential decline was not supported, nor was a strict interpretation of the hypothesis that cognitive ageing is entirely pathology driven.

Early-life cognitive ability is likely to be dynamically related to life course factors including educational attainment, occupational outcomes, health behaviors, activities, health, and subsequent cognitive health. Disentangling the selective and causal processes contributing to cognitive functioning across the life span is challenging and requires long-term investments in longitudinal data. The authors discuss results from several analyses using data from the Individual Development and Adaptation longitudinal research program that provide fresh insights into the relation of early-life cognition, particularly high levels of cognitive capabilities, to educational achievement, emotional adjustment, and career success. These articles and the longitudinal data provide a remarkable window into the development and impacts of cognition, and high cognitive functioning, on a variety of important life outcomes that we hope will continue to inform us about additional outcomes in middle life, transition to retirement, and cognition and health in later years and to robustly examine how the early years matter across the whole life span.

Objective: Older adults are increasingly likely to have two or more chronic medical conditions (multimorbidity) and are consequently at greater risk of disability. Here we examine the role of inflammation in mediating the relationship between multimorbidity and disability. 

Method: Data are from the Survey of Mid-Life in the United States (MIDUS), a national sample of middle-aged and older adults. Structural equation models were used to assess direct relationships between multimorbidity and activities of daily living as well as indirect associations with a latent variable for inflammation (indicated by circulating levels of interleukin-6, C-reactive protein, and fibrinogen) as a mediator. 

Results: After adjustment for potential confounds, multimorbidity was positively associated with inflammation (p < .001) and functional limitations (p < .001), and inflammation partially mediated the link between multimorbidity and functional limitations (p < .01). 

Discussion: Inflammation may be an important biological mechanism through which chronic medical conditions are linked to disability in later life.

Personality traits have emerged as significant contributors to physical and mental health, as well as various economic outcomes including income. Few studies have explored whether personality is related to the frequency of days lost on the job due to physical or mental health issues, and the subsequent economic losses as a result. The current study bridged the health, economic, and personality variables to determine whether personality was associated with earnings lost due to work cut back days from poor physical or mental health. We found, both concurrently and over a 10 year follow up, that high neuroticism and low openness were associated with more earnings lost due to mental health, while low extraversion was associated with more earnings lost due to physical health. These findings are interpreted in light of the effects that personality may have on an individual’s career and financial outcomes, and the economic effects of untreated physical and mental health problems.