Center on Population Health and Aging

Pilot Projects

Pilot Project 6: Demographic, Physical, Cognitive, and Psychosocial Predictors of Disability Outcomes in the Oldest Old

Principal Investigator: Steven H. Zarit (Penn State). Co-investigators: Scott M. Hofer (Penn State), Marianne M. Hillemeier (Penn State).

External Collaborators: Stig Berg (GENDER, NONA, OCTO, OCTO-Twin, Institute for Gerontology, Jönköping, Sweden), Boo Johansson (OCTO-Twin, Institute for Gerontology, Jönköping, Sweden), Bo Malmberg (OCTO, OCTO-Twin, Institute for Gerontology, Jönköping, Sweden), Gerald McClearn (OCTO-Twin, GENDER, Penn State), Gerdt Sundstrom (NONA, Institute for Gerontology, Jönköping, Sweden)

Specific Aims

This pilot study will conduct research on the disability process among the oldest old. Drawing upon four unique, population-based longitudinal data sets of Swedish adults aged 70 to 94 (GENDER, OCTO, OCTO-Twin, and NONA), we will prepare a combined data set for analyses on the onset and course of disabilities in the oldest old. Each of the four parent studies is longitudinal in design, with follow-ups conducted at 2-year intervals. Each includes a wide range of comparable measures on the demographic, biomedical and psychosocial risk factors related to disability. There is sufficient overlap among the measures in the four studies to allow for the incorporation of data from each of the samples in most of the final, combined analyses. Furthermore, each of the studies contains unusually high quality data. Trained nurses conducted interviews in respondents' places of residence. They administered an in-depth interview, and conducted biomedical assessments of several physical and cognitive functions. The combination of these four, high quality data sets will result in a final data set with an unusually large, population-based sample of people aged 80 and over that would allow for more sophisticated analyses on demographic, biomedical and psychosocial risk factors for disability than have been performed previously. Pilot work to be conducted in this project will include preparing the combined data set, testing the equivalency of measures across studies, testing the reliability of new measures constructed in the combined data set, determining the effects of attrition and mortality in the combined data, and determining sample size for testing of key hypotheses.

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