Dan G Blazer
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 221689 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Dan G Blazer |
| NOMBRES | Dan G |
| APELLIDO | Blazer |
| FIRMA | BLAZER D G |
| AFILIACIONES | Duke Medical Center |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7261-9254 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 51 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 154 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 50 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 1 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1982 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2022 |
| ÍNDICE H | 8 |
The Great Health Paradox
The great health paradox is that the least expensive and most effective public health measures available for addressing the COVID-19 pandemic—and other society-wide health challenges—have long been ignored and rejected in the United States in favor of more expensive and personalized care. The U.S. medical system is being overwhelmed in part because of this paradox. The authors argue that the country has invested excessively in acute care medical …
Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults
Covid-19
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is having profound effects on the lives and well-being of the world’s population. All levels of the nation’s public health and health care delivery systems are rapidly adjusting to secure the health infrastructure to manage the pandemic in the United States. As the nation’s safety net health care systems, academic medical centers (AMCs) are vital clinical and academic resources in managing the pandemic. COVID-1…
World Health Organization cardiovascular disease risk charts
BACKGROUND: To help adapt cardiovascular disease risk prediction approaches to low-income and middle-income countries, WHO has convened an effort to develop, evaluate, and illustrate revised risk models. Here, we report the derivation, validation, and illustration of the revised WHO cardiovascular disease risk prediction charts that have been adapted to the circumstances of 21 global regions. METHODS: In this model revision initiative, we derived…
Risk thresholds for alcohol consumption
BACKGROUND: Low-risk limits recommended for alcohol consumption vary substantially across different national guidelines. To define thresholds associated with lowest risk for all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease, we studied individual-participant data from 599 912 current drinkers without previous cardiovascular disease. METHODS: We did a combined analysis of individual-participant data from three large-scale data sources in 19 high-inco…
Inflammation and Coagulation as Mediators in the Relationships Between Religious Attendance and Functional Limitations in Older Adults
Relationships between attendance and function may be due in part to lower levels of inflammation and coagulation among elders who attend services
Illicit and Nonmedical Drug Use Among Older Adults
Objective: Substance abuse among older adults is a looming public health concern. The number of Americans aged 50+ years with a substance use disorder is projected to double from 2.8 million in 2002-2006 to 5.7 million in 2020. The authors provide a review of epidemiological findings for this understudied area of research by focusing on illicit drug use disorders and nonmedical use of prescription drugs among adults aged 50+ years. Method: MEDLIN…
Maternal Prenatal Depressive Symptoms, Nicotine Addiction, and Smoking-Related Knowledge, Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behaviors
A Prospective Study of Depression Following Combat Deployment in Support of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
Objective. We investigated relations between deployment and new-onset depression among US service members recently deployed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Methods. We included 40 219 Millennium Cohort Study participants who completed baseline and follow-up questionnaires and met inclusion criteria. Participants were identified with depression if they met the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders Patient Health Questionnaire criteria f…
Maternal Prenatal Pregnancy-Related Anxiety and Spontaneous Preterm Birth in Baltimore, Maryland
OBJECTIVE: To focus on the relationship between pregnancy-related anxiety and spontaneous preterm birth. Psychosocial factors have been the subject of inquiries about the etiology of preterm birth; a factor of recent interest is maternal prenatal pregnancy-related anxiety (worries and concerns related to the pregnancy). METHODS: From 1991 to 1993, a total of 1820 women completed the study questionnaire during their first prenatal visit to clinics…
Perception of Unmet Basic Needs as a Predictor of Physical Functioning Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults
Interventions focused on providing older adults with resources for meeting basic needs may substantially reduce the subsequent level of disability
Leighton's Theory of Sentiments
In My Name Is Legion (Leighton, 1959), the basic assumption of Alexander H. Leighton's theory of sentiment is as follows: 'A given personality exists more or less continuously throughout life in the act of striving, and interference with that striving has consequences which in turn often lead to psychiatric disorder' (p. 136). This commentary focuses first on selected sources of interference to interpersonal forgiveness and then elaborates a rese…
Perception of Unmet Basic Needs as a Predictor of Mortality Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults
Objectives. We sought to determine whether, among older adults (>65 years), a perception that their basic needs are not being met increased mortality risk and whether this risk varied by race/ethnicity. Methods. We used Cox proportional hazards modeling to estimate the effect of perceived inadequacy in having one’s basic needs (adequacy of income, quality of housing, and neighborhood safety) met on 10-year mortality rates. Results. After control …
The Age of Melancholy
In The Age of Melancholy, noted psychiatrist and author Dan Blazer ponders why - if our biological makeup has not fundamentally changed in the last half-century - we are suddenly depressed on an epidemic scale? He does not have to look far to find answers in the breakneck pace of 21st century life, in our societal pressures, in our intrusive work spaces, and in our disjointed relationships. And yet, despite many seemingly obvious links between ou…
Depression in Late Life
Depression is perhaps the most frequent cause of emotional suffering in later life and significantly decreases quality of life in older adults. In recent years, the literature on late-life depression has exploded. Many gaps in our understanding of the outcome of late-life depression have been filled. Intriguing findings have emerged regarding the etiology of late-onset depression. The number of studies documenting the evidence base for therapy ha…
Apoe ε4 as a Predictor of Subjective Quality of Life in a Biracial Older Person Community Sample
This study is among the first to explore the association of the epsilon4 allele with overall QOL. Considered from a public health perspective, these findings challenge the uncritical assumption that the presence of this susceptibility gene in the population implies an excess burden of poor QOL. The findings do not contradict the previous association of epsilon4 with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other conditions. Such conditions continue to merit …
Principles and Practice of Geriatric Psychiatry
Partial table of contents: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Scope and Development in the Twentieth Century (E. Busse) NORMAL AGEING Structural Changes in the Ageing Brain (H. Brody) ABNORMAL AGEING The Influence of Social Factors on Mental Health (D. Mechanic) DIAGNOSIS AND ASSESSMENT The Importance of Multidimensional Assessment in Clinical Practice (M. Eastwood) ORGANIC DISORDERS Risk Factors (L. Amaducci & A. Lippi) AFFECTIVE DISORDERS Physical Illness a…
The Effect of Race and Health-Related Factors on Naming and Memory
The racial differences found in test performance may reflect differences in cultural appropriateness of the material rather than differences in ability
Does Religious Attendance Prolong Survival? A Six-Year Follow-Up Study of 3,968 Older Adults
METHODS: A probability sample of 3,968 community-dwelling adults aged 64-101 years residing in the Piedmont of North Carolina was surveyed in 1986 as part of the Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly (EPESE) program of the National Institutes of Health. Attendance at religious services and a wide variety of sociodemographic and health variables were assessed at baseline. Vital status of members was then determined p…
"Aging, Health, and the "Electronic Church
We tested whether elders substitute religious media use for church attendance when health declines (using multidimensional disengagement theory) with data from a multiracial, population-based sample in the Bible Belt (N = 2,971). In adjusted models, 3-year declines in functional status were significantly associated with concurrent reduction in frequency of church attendance but not with any change in rates of religious media (TV/radio) use. Age-r…
Social Correlates of the Dimensions of Depression in the Elderly
Few investigations of the social correlates of depressive symptomatology have addressed variation in the correlates across multiple dimensions of depression scales. We examined the relationships of selected social, clinical, and demographic correlates with four dimensions of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D) scale in 3,401 community-dwelling elders in the Piedmont area of North Carolina. These correlates explained significan…
Modeling the Cross-Sectional Relationships Between Religion, Physical Health, Social Support, and Depressive Symptoms
Attendance at Religious Services, Interleukin-6, and other Biological Parameters of Immune Function in Older Adults
OBJECTIVE: First, to examine and explain the relationship between religious service attendance and plasma Interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels, and second, to examine the relationship between religious attendance and other immune-system regulators and inflammatory substances. METHODS: During the third in-person interview (1992) of the Establishment of Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly (EPESE) project, Duke site, 1718 subjects age sixty-…
Memory Complaint as a Predictor of Cognitive Decline
Of a representative, racially mixed community sample of older adults in North Carolina, 59% of Whites and 49% of African Americans reported worsening memory. The complaint about memory was positively correlated with age, depressive symptomatology, and physical function but not with level of cognitive function as measured by the Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire (SPMSQ) at baseline. In a controlled analysis of longitudinal data, initial S…
Do Racial Differences in Hypertension Persist in Successful Agers
The objective of this study was to determine whether racial differences in hypertension in a random sample of community-dwelling older adults also remained significant in a sample of successful agers. Data for the random sample of community-dwelling older adults came from the Duke University Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly (4,162 community-dwelling adults age 65 and older) and showed strong racial differences in h…
Estimating Increment-Decrement Life Tables with Multiple Covariates from Panel Data
A fundamental limitation of current multistate life table methodology-evident in recent estimates of active life expectancy for the elderly-is the inability to estimate tables from data on small longitudinal panels in the presence of multiple covariates (such as sex, race, and socioeconomic status). This paper presents an approach to such an estimation based on an isomorphism between the structure of the stochastic model underlying a conventional…
The impact of depressive symptomatology on physical disability
OBJECTIVES. The purpose of these analyses was to test the hypothesis that depressive symptomatology affects the risk of onset of physical disability in high-functioning elderly adults. METHODS. The data come from the MacArthur Study of Successful Aging, a community-based cohort of high-functioning adults aged 70 through 79 years who were assessed twice at a 2.5-year interval. Physical and cognitive status was assessed by performance as well as by…
Social Correlates of the Dimensions of Depression in the Elderly
Few investigations of the social correlates of depressive symptomatology have addressed variation in the correlates across multiple dimensions of depression scales. We examined the relationships of selected social, clinical, and demographic correlates with four dimensions of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D) scale in 3,401 community-dwelling elders in the Piedmont area of North Carolina. These correlates explained significan…
Alternative models of the stress buffering hypothesis
The interactive effects of life events and social support on a DSM-III diagnosis of major depressive episode and on number of depressive symptoms were examined. Data are from a stratified random sample of 3,732 community-dwelling adults. The paper focuses on differences between linear probability models and logistic regression models with regard to the definition, detection, and interpretation of interaction effects. Results indicate that conclus…
Perception of Unmet Basic Needs as a Predictor of Mortality Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults
Objectives. We sought to determine whether, among older adults (>65 years), a perception that their basic needs are not being met increased mortality risk and whether this risk varied by race/ethnicity. Methods. We used Cox proportional hazards modeling to estimate the effect of perceived inadequacy in having one’s basic needs (adequacy of income, quality of housing, and neighborhood safety) met on 10-year mortality rates. Results. After control …
Health services access and use among older adults in North Carolina
OBJECTIVES. This study compared health service use and satisfaction with health care among older adults living in urban vs rural counties in North Carolina. METHODS. A stratified random sample of 4162 residents of one urban and four rural counties of North Carolina was surveyed to determine urban/rural variation in inpatient and outpatient health service use, continuity of care and satisfaction with care, and barriers (transportation, cost) to ca…
Sociocultural Factors in Sexual Assault
In previous research, the lifetime prevalence of sexual assault among U.S. women ranges from less than 15% to more than 50%. Much of this variability is due to methodological differences across studies, but some of the inconsistency may be substantively meaningful, reflecting the effects of social context on the risk of sexual assault. This paper provides a profile of sexual assault victims from a representative sample of urban and rural southern…
A Prospective Study of Depression Following Combat Deployment in Support of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
Objective. We investigated relations between deployment and new-onset depression among US service members recently deployed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Methods. We included 40 219 Millennium Cohort Study participants who completed baseline and follow-up questionnaires and met inclusion criteria. Participants were identified with depression if they met the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders Patient Health Questionnaire criteria f…
The Effect of Race and Health-Related Factors on Naming and Memory
The racial differences found in test performance may reflect differences in cultural appropriateness of the material rather than differences in ability
"Aging, Health, and the "Electronic Church
We tested whether elders substitute religious media use for church attendance when health declines (using multidimensional disengagement theory) with data from a multiracial, population-based sample in the Bible Belt (N = 2,971). In adjusted models, 3-year declines in functional status were significantly associated with concurrent reduction in frequency of church attendance but not with any change in rates of religious media (TV/radio) use. Age-r…
Benzodiazepine anti-anxiety agents
BACKGROUND: Benzodiazepine anti-anxiety agents are the most widely prescribed psychotherapeutic drugs in the United States today. Recent evidence, however, suggests that their use may be decreasing. METHODS: We examine the population prevalence and correlates of use of benzodiazepine anxiolytics at the Duke site of the NIMH-sponsored Epidemiologic Catchment Area project. RESULTS: Bivariate analysis of use patterns for the drugs revealed demograph…
Memory Complaint as a Predictor of Cognitive Decline
Of a representative, racially mixed community sample of older adults in North Carolina, 59% of Whites and 49% of African Americans reported worsening memory. The complaint about memory was positively correlated with age, depressive symptomatology, and physical function but not with level of cognitive function as measured by the Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire (SPMSQ) at baseline. In a controlled analysis of longitudinal data, initial S…
Do Racial Differences in Hypertension Persist in Successful Agers
The objective of this study was to determine whether racial differences in hypertension in a random sample of community-dwelling older adults also remained significant in a sample of successful agers. Data for the random sample of community-dwelling older adults came from the Duke University Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly (4,162 community-dwelling adults age 65 and older) and showed strong racial differences in h…
Inflammation and Coagulation as Mediators in the Relationships Between Religious Attendance and Functional Limitations in Older Adults
Relationships between attendance and function may be due in part to lower levels of inflammation and coagulation among elders who attend services
Leighton's Theory of Sentiments
In My Name Is Legion (Leighton, 1959), the basic assumption of Alexander H. Leighton's theory of sentiment is as follows: 'A given personality exists more or less continuously throughout life in the act of striving, and interference with that striving has consequences which in turn often lead to psychiatric disorder' (p. 136). This commentary focuses first on selected sources of interference to interpersonal forgiveness and then elaborates a rese…
Black-White and Urban-Rural Differences in Stability of Household Composition among Elderly Persons
The dynamic nature of household composition in a population of elderly persons, with particular focus on Black-White and urban-rural differences, is described in this study. The Duke EPESE is a stratified, random household sample (N = 4,162) of elderly persons in a five-county mixed urban-rural area of North Carolina with respondents contacted annually to report on health and social factors. Between 1986 and 1990, 35 percent of the households und…
Reducing antipsychotic drug prescribing for nursing home patients
We conducted a statewide, controlled trial of the efficacy of an educational visit in reducing antipsychotic drug prescribing for nursing home patients. Frequent antipsychotic drug prescribers were visited by a trained physician counselor who stressed known drug risks for elderly patients and suggested techniques for reducing antipsychotic drug use. Although well-received, the visit did not reduce antipsychotic drug prescribing. This negative fin…
Social Support and Mortality in an Elderly Community Population1
A community sample made in the fall of 1972 in Durham County, North Carolina, and that consisted of 331 persons 65 years of age and older was assessed for adequacy of social support along three parameters: roles and available attachments, perceived social support, and frequency of social interaction. This approach to the assessment of social support complements previous approaches to the measurement of social support which have not compared with …
Reducing antipsychotic drug prescribing for nursing home patients
We conducted a statewide, controlled trial of the efficacy of an educational visit in reducing antipsychotic drug prescribing for nursing home patients. Frequent antipsychotic drug prescribers were visited by a trained physician counselor who stressed known drug risks for elderly patients and suggested techniques for reducing antipsychotic drug use. Although well-received, the visit did not reduce antipsychotic drug prescribing. This negative fin…
Age differences in life event qualities
Effects of age on the distribution of three life events qualities (expectation, valence, importance) for specific life events experienced during the past year by community-based adults were examined, controlling for sex, race, education, marital status, and place of residence. The controlled analyses were done using multiple regression. Data were gathered via personal interviews from 3,798 respondents aged 18 + years who participated in the Epide…
Home health care
Home health care: house calls revisited. D BlazerCopyRight https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.78.3.238 Published Online: October 07, 2011
Dr. Blazer's Response
Dr. Blazer's Response Dan G. Blazer CopyRight https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.78.8.987-b Published Online: October 07, 2011
Social Support and the Outcome of Major Depression
One hundred and fifty middle-aged and elderly adults with a diagnosis of major depression were assessed initially as inpatients, and were reinterviewed 6–32 months later. Both size of social network and subjective social support were significant predictors of depressive symptoms at follow-up, with baseline depression scores and other predictors of outcome status statistically controlled. Subjective social support was most strongly associated with…
In Response to "Psychiatric Diagnosis as Reified Measurement"
Marvin Swartz, Bernard Carroll, Dan Blazer, In Response to "Psychiatric Diagnosis as Reified Measurement": An Invited Comment on Mirowsky and Ross (1989), Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Mar., 1989), pp. 33-34
Alternative models of the stress buffering hypothesis
The interactive effects of life events and social support on a DSM-III diagnosis of major depressive episode and on number of depressive symptoms were examined. Data are from a stratified random sample of 3,732 community-dwelling adults. The paper focuses on differences between linear probability models and logistic regression models with regard to the definition, detection, and interpretation of interaction effects. Results indicate that conclus…
Anticipating the Future and Change
As in all of medicine, there are basic assumptions underlying the present system of dental education and delivery. These basic assumptions are facing challenges due in part to the marked reduction in the incidence of caries and the development of more effective therapies. This current period of time is described as an era of true change, rather than the mere modification of existing technology. Changes are going to occur in a number of areas. The…
The Association of Age and Depression Among the Elderly
Advanced age among the elderly has been hypothesized to be a risk factor for depression, yet extant data do not uniformly support this hypothesis. The paucity of sufficiently large and representative samples of both the young-old and old-old and the failure to control for critical variables known to confound the association between advanced age and depression have prevented testing this hypothesis. The Duke EPESE (Establishment of a Population fo…
Benzodiazepine anti-anxiety agents
BACKGROUND: Benzodiazepine anti-anxiety agents are the most widely prescribed psychotherapeutic drugs in the United States today. Recent evidence, however, suggests that their use may be decreasing. METHODS: We examine the population prevalence and correlates of use of benzodiazepine anxiolytics at the Duke site of the NIMH-sponsored Epidemiologic Catchment Area project. RESULTS: Bivariate analysis of use patterns for the drugs revealed demograph…
Sociocultural Factors in Sexual Assault
In previous research, the lifetime prevalence of sexual assault among U.S. women ranges from less than 15% to more than 50%. Much of this variability is due to methodological differences across studies, but some of the inconsistency may be substantively meaningful, reflecting the effects of social context on the risk of sexual assault. This paper provides a profile of sexual assault victims from a representative sample of urban and rural southern…
Abbreviating the Duke Social Support Index for Use in Chronically Ill Elderly Individuals
High, usual and impaired functioning in community-dwelling older men and women
Educational Status and Active Life Expectancy among Older Blacks and Whites
BACKGROUND AND METHODS: Persons of low socioeconomic status are known to have reduced life expectancy. In a study of the relation of socioeconomic status to disability-free or active life expectancy among older persons, we analyzed prospectively gathered data on 2219 blacks and 1838 whites who were 65 years of age or older in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. We defined disability as the inability to perform independently one or more basic f…
Aging, Health Behaviors, and Health Outcomes
Predicting Changes in Physical Performance in a High-Functioning Elderly Cohort
BACKGROUND: Performance-based measures of physical performance were examined for an older cohort of relatively high-functioning men and women. Relationships between baseline physical performance and sociodemographic and health status characteristics were also examined. Three-year pattern changes in performance are described, and sociodemographic and health status predictors of change are investigated. METHODS: A cohort of relatively high-function…
A Short Physical Performance Battery Assessing Lower Extremity Function
BACKGROUND: A short battery of physical performance tests was used to assess lower extremity function in more than 5,000 persons age 71 years and older in three communities. METHODS: Balance, gait, strength, and endurance were evaluated by examining ability to stand with the feet together in the side-by-side, semi-tandem, and tandem positions, time to walk 8 feet, and time to rise from a chair and return to the seated position 5 times. RESULTS: A…
Religion, Health, and Forgiveness
Ever-smoking, quitting, and psychiatric disorders
Correspondence to : Lirio S Covey, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, 722 West 168th Street, New York, NY 10032, USA Abstract Objective -To examine the association between cigarette smoking and psychi atric disorders. Design-The relationship between 11 psychiatric disorders and both ever smoking and quitting or reducing smok ing was determined by odds ratio analy sis. Statistical adjustment was employed to control for the influence of…
The impact of depressive symptomatology on physical disability
OBJECTIVES. The purpose of these analyses was to test the hypothesis that depressive symptomatology affects the risk of onset of physical disability in high-functioning elderly adults. METHODS. The data come from the MacArthur Study of Successful Aging, a community-based cohort of high-functioning adults aged 70 through 79 years who were assessed twice at a 2.5-year interval. Physical and cognitive status was assessed by performance as well as by…
Estimating Increment-Decrement Life Tables with Multiple Covariates from Panel Data
A fundamental limitation of current multistate life table methodology-evident in recent estimates of active life expectancy for the elderly-is the inability to estimate tables from data on small longitudinal panels in the presence of multiple covariates (such as sex, race, and socioeconomic status). This paper presents an approach to such an estimation based on an isomorphism between the structure of the stochastic model underlying a conventional…
Predictors of cognitive change in older persons
Depressive Symptomatology and Hypertension-Associated Morbidity and Mortality in Older Adults
This study determines, in a population of older adults with diagnosed hypertension, the concurrent association between depressive symptomatology and blood pressure control and the longitudinal association between depressive symptomatology and blood pressure control, stroke, and cardiovascular-related mortality. Data are from the East Boston, Massachusetts; New Haven, Connecticut; and Iowa sites of the Established Populations for Epidemiologic Stu…
Black-White and Urban-Rural Differences in Stability of Household Composition among Elderly Persons
The dynamic nature of household composition in a population of elderly persons, with particular focus on Black-White and urban-rural differences, is described in this study. The Duke EPESE is a stratified, random household sample (N = 4,162) of elderly persons in a five-county mixed urban-rural area of North Carolina with respondents contacted annually to report on health and social factors. Between 1986 and 1990, 35 percent of the households und…
Medicine (44 obras) · Psychology (32 obras) · Psychiatry (25 obras) · Gerontology (20 obras) · Demography (17 obras) · Gerontology (15 obras) · Health disparities and outcomes (15 obras) · Sociology (13 obras) · Population (12 obras) · Cognition (10 obras)