Recruitment to prospective longitudinal studies at the end of life is difficult, but possible. The lessons learned from this study are applicable to future investigators conducting prospective research.

Excessive napping is associated with impaired sleep hygiene as well as with a broad range of activity-related health deficits among community-dwelling older adults. Frequent napping was associated with impaired sleep hygiene, male gender, urban-dwelling, depressive symptoms, physical activity deficits, functional impairment, and excess weight. Mortality risk was elevated selectively among the most cognitively impaired subjects.

Older adults, particularly women, who attend religious services at least once a week appear to have a survival advantage over those attending services less frequently.

This study confirms earlier findings of minimal overall differences in symptom frequency between African-American and non-African-American community-dwelling older adults in controlled studies.

No abstract

Religiously active older adults tend to have lower blood pressures than those who are less active. This applies to attendance at religious services and private religious activities, but not to religious media. Physiological mechanisms are discussed.

No abstract

There is a weak relationship between religious attendance and high IL-6 levels that could not be explained by other covariates, depression, or negative life events. This finding provides some support for the hypothesis that older adults who frequently attend religious services have healthier immune systems, although mechanism of effect remains unknown.