title: Midlife trends in activities and disability.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This is the first analysis that demonstrates empirically the likely tie between activities (time spent) and disability (health-related difficulty in activities). We compare trends in activities and disability for Americans ages 55 to 69 in recent years, and assess cross-sectional linkages of activities and disability.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data are from the Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal survey of community-dwelling U.S. adults. Trends are estimated by mixed-effects regression models (MRMs) with time, age, and time-age interaction predictors. Links of activities and disability also use MRM.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For midlife adults, hobbies/leisure and sports/exercise increased, repairs/yard decreased, and several activities had convex patterns; by contrast, disability prevalence was stable. Personal care hours rise with disability, but most activities decline.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Activities are more dynamic than disability, and time use is associated with disability. Taken together, the results encourage broader activities in disability measures to capture better disability's scope and dynamics.
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Lois M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Verbrugge
authors.forename: Xian
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014481:United States
keywords: activities; disability; midlife; trends