The investigators seek funding for secondary analysis of data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. The purpose of the proposed research is to conduct split-sample validation analyses of a new person-centered methodology for linking life history profiles to health outcomes. The analytic strategy uses the personal history as the unit of analysis to aggregate information across multiple life domains and then, through a process of abstraction and generalization, identifies similar life pathways across cases. The technique has been demonstrated with a subsample of women in the WLS (Singer et al., 1998, Sociological Methodology).
The aim here is to establish its replicative stability. Specifically, the investigators will preselect from the WLS sample individuals showing good versus poor profiles of physical and mental health in midlife (HEALTHY n = 700 men and 800 women vs. VULNERABLE = 220 men and 200 women). Half of each of these groups will be used to identify aggregates of life histories leading to these outcomes; the remaining half will be used to cross- validate these pathways. These steps will be conducted separately for men and women. The life history information, encompasses early background and starting resources, educational and occupational attainment, job conditions, marriage and parenting, social support, social participation, etc., is organized in terms of the cumulation of adversity and the cumulation of advantage. Particular interest is in the life histories of those with extensive adversity who nonetheless remain healthy (i.e., what protective factors account for their resilience?). Possible biological mechanisms (allostatic load, immune function, cerebral activation asymmetry) intervening between life histories and health outcomes will be examined with a subsample (n = 80) on whom such data are available. The proposed strategy addresses a central challenge in the biodemography of aging: namely, identifying the precursors of health problems and proximal risk factors in late life. The pathway constructions thus address the processes leading to disease and disability in old age. Importantly, they also point to the mechanisms promoting healthy aging, which in turn, can lead to promising targets for intervention, thereby increasing disability-free life years.
