The Women's Health and Aging Study (WHAS) is a major effort by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to better understand the causes and course of disability in older women. Disability in later life is a serious health problem for women, threatening their independence and resulting in significant health care needs and expenditures. Although women live longer than men, they suffer disproportionately from disability and its consequences.
NIA's Epidemiology, Demography and Biometry Program initiated the WHAS through a contract with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1991. The baseline screening assessed a representative sample of older women living in the community in Baltimore, Maryland, to identify those who were moderately to severely disabled, representing approximately the one-third most disabled women age 65 years and older. Baseline intensive study of the 1,002 disabled women who participated in the full evaluation was completed in early 1995. This monograph presents comprehensive data on health and social characteristics of these women. Followup of this cohort is ongoing.
The purpose of this monograph is to provide research and policy communities early access to some of the unique study methods and major baseline findings of this study. The descriptive data presented here offer an excellent overview of diseases and disability and their impact on older women. For investigators, the monograph is a resource for those who would like to use similar questionnaires and examination procedures. It gives policy makers ready access to timely and detailed data they may need for today's discussion of long-term care and other issues affecting frail older people and their families. Finally, data presented here are a testament to the ability of older women with disabilities to function in the real world, as exemplified in Chapter 3 on adaptation to disability and in Chapter 5 on aspects of daily life.
We wish to acknowledge the excellent work of the editors and authors of this book and their timely publication of these data. We are especially pleased that the text and tables in this monograph will be available on the Internet for use by local and global audiences. We would particularly like to express appreciation to Drs. Linda Fried and Jack Guralnik, who chaired the WHAS Steering Committee meetings and facilitated the work of the large group of investigators and field staff who made important contributions to this study. The study has benefited greatly from the diverse group of collaborators from academia, the private sector, and government, including visiting scientists from abroad. Their expertise in geriatrics, epidemiology, physical disability, social psycho-logy, survey methodology, biochemical markers, and clinical pharmacology has enhanced both the design and conduct of the project.
We believe that this report will be of benefit to a wide audience and will stimulate new analytic and research efforts. Ultimately, the WHAS has the potential to play an important role in the development of effective treatments and preventive strategies for physical disability in all older persons.