Introductory remarks.
This important topic, aging, is really a woman's issue as things now stand. Someday, it is to be hoped, it will be more a man's issue as well, but that is one of the research challenges.Few features of the human aging process have such enormous personal, economic, social, and cultural consequences as the sex differential in lengevity. Life expectancy at birth for women has increased far more rapidly than for men.By the time a person reaches the age of 85, there are approximately five women for every two men. Many other statistics support and illustrate dramatically the importance of gender differences in aging and the challenge of trying to understand why they exist: It is important also to understand the differences in disability.In a recent issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society William Hazzard looked at the biological basis for the sexual differential in longevity His review is extremely thorough and thought-provoking. Dr. Hazzard recently left the geriatric unit at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to become Chairman of Medicine at Bowman Gray School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC.The discussions that follow will examine many aspects of this important subject.
Williams
T Franklin
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