The total number of participants ever studied in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA) reached 2018: 1106 active participants, 415 inactive, and 497 deceased. BLSA Population Dynamics refers to optimal management and scientific description of the total population. We are close to reaching our sample size goal set in 1987, and based on past attrition. This sample size provides for 12-year follow-up of 30 men and 30 women in each age decade from 20 through 70, and 6-year follow-up of those in their 80's. We are examining key differences in the demographics of the BLSA men and women who joined the Study since 1978, and comparing the sample demographically to national statistics and other longitudinal studies. In a recently submitted manuscript, mortality patterns in the BLSA males were described and compared with those of U.S. white males regarding leading causes of death, death rates, and longevity. We will take part in a symposium at the 1990 Gerontological Society of America meetings with scientists from the Duke, Framingham, and Boston V.A. longitudinal studies to compare mortality patterns in our four studies and the U.S. The rate of autopsies performed as part of the BLSA autopsy program, begun in 1986, has increased. Almost half of the 17 autopsies performed under this program have been done in 1990.
