Early Indicators of Later Work Levels, Disease, and Death

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The principal objective of this research program is the creation of a public-use tape suitable for a prospective study of aging in a random sample of 39,616 men mustered into the Union Army during 1861-1865. Approximately 31,000 of the individuals in the sample lived to be age 40 and over between 1870 and 1940. The tape will cover virtually the entire life-cycle of the recruits. It will contain information on the socioeconomic characteristics of the households in which they were reared and of the prevalence of specific diseases in the localities in which they lived during their developmental ages; it will also contain their health histories while in the service, including various measures of stress; and it will contain their occupational, residential, and health histories from the dates they left the service until their deaths, as well as information on the cause of their deaths. The tape will provide the basis for four analytical projects that are titled: (1) Exposure to Disease During Growing Ages and War Service; (2) Early Predictors of Morbidity and Mortality at Later Ages; (3) Secular Trends in Labor Force Activity at Older Ages; (4) Intergenerational and Familial Aspects of Aging. The research team is first-rate, well balanced in skills and experienced in the areas in which they will be working. The extraordinary data set produced will permit the exploration of important and little understood issues in socio-economic history as well as in current policy. In addition, the analytical tools and relationships developed should find extensive use in many disciplines. Approximately, two-thirds of the estimated $3,622,580 cost of the project is being borne by the National Institute of Aging (NIA). Other prospective funders outside NIA include the National Science Foundation, the National Medical Library, and various private sources. Their combined contributions should suffice to assure the financial feasibility of the five-year project.