ABSTRACT
As the introduction by my colleague and co-organizer, Dan Blazer, suggests, what might be termed the psychosocial epidemiology of health and aging has grown remarkably over the past several decades. This conference was held at the end of a decade in which the growing enthusiasm of the 1940s-1970s for epidemiology, social science, and psychosocial epidemiology gave way to some increasing uneasiness or skepticism in many quarters, and an increased tendency to view psychosocial and biomedical approaches to the study of aging and health as inherently competitive. These recent trends reflect increasing resource scarcity, which subjects all endeavors to more questioning and more competition. They also reflect the increasing growth and maturity of the social epidemiology of both health and aging. As Dan Blazer suggested, we have learned a great deal over the past several decades. We are also at a point where we need to take stock and consider directions for the future.
