Individual Variability in Human Aging

Brant, L

Abstract

Studies of the variability in biological, psychological, and medical phenomena are being carried out to: 1) determine the """"""""normal"""""""" range of variability in human aging, 2) identify potential sources of variability which may be responsive to intervention, and 3) determine if there are subgroups of individuals who are susceptible or resistant to various aspects of aging. The research combines the use of sophisticated statistical methodologies and the unique time depth and multidisciplinary breadth of the existing BLSA data base to examine issues related to the concepts of """"""""normal"""""""" and """"""""successful"""""""" aging, as well as to increase the power of traditional research designs. The statistical methods used include repeated measures analysis of variance, repeated measures regression models, and finite mixture models. Major findings include: 1) within-subject variability in risk factors over time is sufficient to make baseline measurements unreliable estimates of chronic levels of exposure to many risk factors, 2) individuals differ significantly in the rates of change in blood pressure, and 3) the distributions of various biomedical risk factors change with age. These findings represent significant contributions to the theoretical and methodological development of biomedical risk factor studies, as well as to an increased understanding of the dynamics of the aging process. Research is underway to develop more refined methods of studying variability in aging in order to develop theoretically and methodologically sound approaches to risk factor analysis which account for changes in an individual's covariates over time and the possibility that individuals differ in susceptibility or resistance to aging processes.