Drawing from cumulative disadvantage theory, the health consequences of obesity are considered in light of the accumulation of risk factors over the life course. Two forms of compensation are also examined to determine if the risk due to obesity is persistent or modifiable. Analyses make use of data from a national survey to examine the consequences of obesity on disability among respondents 45 years of age or older, tracked across 20 years (N = 4,106). Results from tobit models indicate that obesity, especially when experienced early in life, is consistently related to lower-body disability. The results also show that obesity has long-term health consequences during adulthood, altering the life course in an enduring way. Compensation was not manifest from risk-factor elimination (weight loss), but rather through regular exercise. Although there is evidence for long-term consequences of risk factors on health, the findings suggest that more attention should be given to compensatory mechanisms in the development of cumulative disadvantage theory.Sociological studies of life chances and well-being have contributed much to our understanding of the life course and the structure of inequality. As empirical generalizations accumulate on how inequality develops over the life course, recent research points to two innovations that have greatly shaped the course of inquiry. First, examining physical or biological markers-whether measured or reported-reveal much about life course opportunities and constraints (Barker 1997; Booth, Carver, and Granger 2000;Conley and Bennett 2000;Seeman et al. 2001). Many markers of physical characteristics, such as birth weight, hormones, and skin tones, may be associated with social arrangements and, hence, quality of life. Indeed, there are many ways that these or other physical characteristics may shape opportunities in life, including perceived attractiveness, stigma, and stratification. Second, long-term examinations of life chances, health, and well-being demonstrate the importance of taking the "long view" in studying life course inequality-integrating information over decades of the life course (Blackwell, Hay ward, and Crimmins 2001;Ferraro and Farmer 1999;Sampson and Laub 1996; Warren, Hauser, and Sheridan 2002). Some risks are immediate in their effects, but others take considerable time to become manifest.One risk that has garnered considerable attention during the past decade is excess body weight. Obesity has long been recognized as a target of stigma in many societies (DeJong 1980;Stunkard, LaFleur, and Wadden 1998) and has influenced labor market location Direct all correspondence to Kenneth F. Ferraro, Professor of Sociology, Stone Hall, Purdue University, 700 West State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2059 (ferraro@purdue.edu). An early version of this paper was presented at the 2001 annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America in Chicago. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptAm Sociol Rev. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2012 May 09. NIH-PA Author M...

This research supports the "persistent inequality" interpretation, indicating that Black adults have higher morbidity and disability earlier in life compared with White adults, and that the gap neither converges nor diverges over time.

The results suggest that self-ratings of health are sensitive to declines in physical health, especially those associated with terminal drop. The analysis also demonstrates the importance of using dynamic models for studying the link between self-rated health and mortality if data from multiple observation points are available.

Objectives Using the Proactivity Model of Successful Aging, we examined how internal and external resources contribute to the maintenance of psychological well-being and social activities among older adults who experience normative stressors of aging. Outcome variables in this study are collectively referred to as quality of life (QOL). We also examined the mediating role of proactive adaptations between internal and external resources and QOL indicators. Method Based on five annual interviews of a sample of 1,000 community dwelling older adults in Florida (effective N = 561), we tested the lagged effects of stressors on two indicators of QOL, four years later. In the full longitudinal model, using structural equations, we estimated the direct effects of internal and external resources on QOL, along with indirect effects through proactive adaptations. Results Stressors negatively influenced QOL four years later. Internal and external resources led to better QOL four years later, both directly and indirectly through proactive adaptations of marshaling support and planning for the future. Conclusion These findings lend support to the Proactivity Model of Successful Aging by documenting the value of proactive adaptations (i.e., exercise, planning ahead and marshaling support) as proximate influences on QOL outcomes (i.e., depressive symptomatology and social activities). Findings suggest that older adults can maintain successful aging even in the face of health-related and social stressors by invoking accumulated resources to deal actively with the challenges of aging.

While most religions provide a meaning system that helps people cope with personal problems, there has been relatively little research on how and why men and women seek religious consolation and comfort. Data from a national longitudinal survey, Americans' Changing Lives, Waves I and II, were used to examine whether physical and mental health problems precipitate seeking religious consolation. The findings indicate that seeking religious consolation is most likely among those who identify with and practice a religion suggesting that religious consolation intensifies among religious persons. Chronic (non-serious) conditions were associated with increased religious seeking over time, and cancer was associated with higher religious seeking, especially among women. Depression was associated with greater seeking of religious consolation among both men and women. The results reveal clearly that women are more likely than men to seek religious consolation, but men seek religious consolation for a wider range of health and situational problems (e.g., unemployment). The findings also demonstrate the importance of considering the role of religious consolation in studies of religion and health.

Disability carries negative social meaning, and little is known about when (or if), in the process of health decline, persons identify themselves as "disabled." We examine the social and health criteria that older adults use to subjectively rate their own disability status. Using a panel study of older adults (ages 72+), we estimate ordered probit and growth curve models of perceived disability over time. Total prevalent morbidity, functional limitations, and cognitive impairment are predictors of perceived disability. Cessation of driving and receipt of home health care also influence older adults 'perceptions of their own disability. A dense social network slowed the rate of labeling oneself disabled, while health anxiety accelerated the process over time, independent of health status. When considering perceived disability, the oldest old use multidimensional criteria capturing function, recent changes in health status and social networks, and anxiety about their health.

Findings suggest that there is a temporal and salient decline in social activities such as religious service attendance when lower body functional limitations are highest. However, long-term engagement in religious service attendance is not predicted by baseline functional limitations, indicating that there are not long-term declines in attendance because of higher levels of functional limitations.

Prior research has not adequately considered that disablement occurs within a web of relationships that provides socioemotional resources to and/or places demands on older adults. Drawing on the stress process and life course perspectives, we considered the social context of disablement by examining the influence of marital quality on the association between disability and loneliness among married older adults. Using data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, we found (1) functional limitations were associated with higher levels of loneliness; (2) neither positive nor negative marital quality mediated this association, contrary to the stress-deterioration hypothesis; and (3) positive (but not negative) marital quality moderated this association, consistent with the stress-buffering hypothesis. These associations were similar for women and men. Our findings indicate the importance of the social context of disablement, as interpersonal resources offer protection from the deleterious socioemotional consequences of disability.