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Exponential growth in the population of older adults presents clinicians with special concerns about factors affecting risks for declines in cognitive and physical functioning.

To examine the hypothesis that risks for such declines and for disease outcomes, such as cardiovascular disease, are related to differences inallostatic load, the cumulative physiologic toll exacted on the body over time by efforts to adapt to life experiences. To present an operational definition of allostatic load, along with preliminary evidence of its predictive validity in relation to salient outcomes of aging.

Data from a longitudinal, community-based study of successful aging were used to develop a measure of allostatic load based on 10 parameters reflecting levels of physiologic activity across a range of important regulatory systems. Allostatic load is the sum of the number of parameters for which the subject was …