POPULATION-BASED, GENETICALLY INFORMATIVE SAMPLE FOR STUDIES OF PHYSICAL FRAILTY AND AGING - BLACK ELDERLY TWIN STUDY

In this article I describe efforts to build a genetically informative, population-based sample of black twins to study physical frailty and aging in the United States, This project involves the use of governmen tal registries combined with sampling techniques developed to overcome limitations in the registry data. Two analytical approaches to measur es of disability are included to illustrate the types of questions tha t can be addressed with this sample. These results suggest that physic al disability in late life has both genetic and environmental determin ants. Only with a genetically informative sample can evidence be colle cted indicating that frailty may be driven by fixed processes (i.e., d isability resulting from activation of senescence genes), fluid proces ses (i.e., disability resulting from changes in the features of the en vironment), or a combination of both.