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Objectives: This research analyzed the body mass index (BMI) level and rate of change, and their association with socio-economic status among older Japanese adults. Methods: Data came from a national sample of over 4,800 Japanese adults aged 60 and older at baseline, with up to 7 repeated observations over a period of 19 years (1987-2006). Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze the intrap-ersonal and interpersonal differences in BMI. Results: Average BMI among older Japanese was 22.26 at baseline and decreased with an accelerating rate over time. Relative to those with less education, BMI among older Japanese with more education was lower and it declined linearly at a faster rate over time. In contrast, higher household income at baseline was associated with a higher level of BMI but similar rates of decline over time. Furthermore, we found no evidence for age variations in the SES-BMI linkage as predicted by prior investigators. Discussion: These findings provide new insights into the complex relationship between socioeconomic factors and BMI, and help to inform the design of health policies and interventions related to weight control among older adults with diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Adverse outcomes associated with chronic depressive symptoms are of clinical importance. The objective was to identify subgroups of older adults based on their trajectories of depressive symptoms over a 10-year period and determine if these subgroups predicted oral health outcomes.Methods: The sample was 944 adults aged 65+ who participated in the oral health module of the the Health and Retirement Survey in 2008. Depressive symptoms were measured with a modified version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D) scale. Latent class trajectory analysis was used to identify distinct subgroups of elders based on their CES-D scores from 1998-2008. Group membership was used to predict self-rated oral health, overall mouth condition (problems with bleeding gums, gum sensitivity, and food avoidance), and edentulism in 2008.Results: Three distinct subgroups were identified using zero-inflated Poisson regression models: (i) minimal depressive symptoms over the study period (43%), (ii) low but generally stable level of depressive symptoms (41%), and (iii) moderate symptoms and higher CES-D scores than the other groups over the 10 years (16%). Controlling for demographic and health variables and edentulism status, having a trajectory of moderate symptoms was associated with poorer mouth condition (p < 0.0001) and poorer self-rated oral health (p = 0.0003) compared with those with minimal symptoms. Having low levels of depressive symptoms was not significantly associated with these two outcomes. Group membership was not significantly associated with the probability of edentulism.Conclusions: Chronic moderate depressive symptoms are associated with poorer oral health in older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies have focused on the relationship between the trajectories of long-term changes in body mass index (BMI; weight (kg)/height (m)2) and all-cause mortality in old age, particularly in non-Western populations. We evaluated this association by applying group-based mixture models to data derived from the National Survey of the Japanese Elderly, which included 4,869 adults aged 60 or more years, with up to 7 repeated observations between 1987 and 2006. Four distinct BMI trajectories were identified: "low-normal weight, decreasing" (baseline BMI = 18.7; 23.8% of sample); "mid-normal weight, decreasing" (baseline BMI = 21.9; 44.6% of sample); "high-normal weight, decreasing" (baseline BMI = 24.8; 26.5% of sample); and "overweight, stable" (baseline BMI = 28.7; 5.2% of sample). Survival analysis with an average follow-up of 13.8 years showed that trajectories of higher BMI were associated with lower mortality. In particular, relative to those with a mid-normal weight, decreasing BMI trajectory, those with an overweight, stable BMI trajectory had the lowest mortality, and those with a low-normal, decreasing BMI trajectory had the highest mortality. In sharp contrast with prior observations from Western populations, BMI changes lie primarily within the normal-weight range, and virtually no older Japanese are obese. The association between BMI trajectories and mortality varies according to the distribution of BMI within the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Although there is extensive research on the stress-buffering effects of social support on health, there is little understanding of this effect on health behaviors such as smoking, particularly during old age. This study aimed to estimate the effect of financial strain and the stress-buffering effect of social support, on the trajectory of smoking over an extended period of time among older Japanese., Method: Data came from a national sample of more than 4,800 adults, aged 60 and older in Japan, with up to 7 repeated observations between 1987 and 2006 (16,669 observations). Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze the intrapersonal and interpersonal differences in smoking., Results: Higher financial strain at baseline was associated with greater amount of smoking, and a slower rate of decline, after adjusting for sociodemographic attributes. Greater instrumental support partially offset the deleterious effect of financial strain on the rate of decline in smoking., Discussion: Our findings add a dynamic dimension to understanding the relationship among financial strain, social support, and smoking in old age. This knowledge is significant when designing health policies and interventions regarding health behaviors in late life., (© The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)