In this older cohort, lower strength with older age was predominantly due to a lower muscle mass. Age and body fat also had significant inverse associations with strength and muscle quality. Both preservation of lean mass and prevention of gain in fat may be important in maintaining strength and muscle quality in old age.

survive to old age, their mortality rates converge toward those for older whites, although blacks remain disadvantaged (Elo and Preston 1994).The racial gap in mortality during the prime adult ages points to the need to understand chronic health problems of middleaged blacks and whites. Middle age, defined here as ages 51 to 63, designates the lifecycle period when the racial gap in health is potentially at its greatest (House et al. 1994). Our overall goal is to identify racial differences in "life without health problems" to better specify the pathways that lead to racial differences in mortality and to differences in the quality of life lived. We define health problems broadly to include the major fatal and nonfatal chronic diseases, conditions, and impairments, functional difficulty, and disability.Two basic questions guide our analysis. First, are blacks consistently disadvantaged relative to whites across all major chronic eath truncates the lives of black Americans at younger ages than whites, with greater racial differences observed for men than women. National life table estimates for 1996 predict a life expectancy at birth for black men of 66 years compared with almost 74 years for white men (Ventura et al. 1997). Much of this difference is due to the racial disparity in mortality rates prior to age 65. Should blacks D

Abnormal joint mobility is an important factor in movement dysfunction and physical disability. Because the decision to treat impaired joint mobility in an older individual may be influenced by assumptions concerning normal range of motion (ROM) at older ages, it is important to establish population-based normative values for hip and knee ROM by age, race, and sex. This study used data from the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 1), which involved a national probability sample of persons drawn from the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States. Goniometric measurements of hip and knee active range of motion (AROM) were obtained from a subset of the sample consisting of 1,892 subjects. This analysis was limited to the 1,313 white and 370 black subjects. Univariate statistics, weighted by the probability of selection into the sample, were calculated for 12 sex-race-age-group-specific categories. These normal AROM values for the hip and knee calculated from this population based sample were found to differ from estimates found in textbooks by as much as 18 degrees. With one exception, normal values for all motions were lower in the oldest age group than in the youngest age group. The differences in mean AROM were generally small, ranging from 3 to 5 degrees. Only in the case of hip extension did the difference in mean AROM between the youngest and the oldest age groups constitute a decline of more than 20% of the arc of motion. With the possible exception of hip extension, this study supports the conclusion that, at least to age 74 years, any substantial loss of joint mobility should be viewed as abnormal and not attributable to aging and therefore should be treated much as it would be in a younger individual.

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Urinary incontinence is highly prevalent, even in well-functioning older women, whites in particular. Many risk factors differ for stress and urge incontinence, suggesting differing etiologies and prevention strategies.