Epidemiology of Aging: An Ecological Approach

Satariano has done the epidemiological community a service by summarizing the literature on aging and its correlates. His book is organized around an ecological "model" -- actually, its merely a framework -- that encompasses social, demographic, and physical factors. He employs this framework in most chapters as he reviews numerous studies on physical and cognitive functioning, depression, injuries, and chronic disease in the elderly. Unfortunately, the book is very tedious to read. Satariano is a boring writer who uses the same formulations over and other. He never uses active voice. Many of his sentence constructions are torturous. As an example: "For older drivers, the increase of intersection crashes has been a salient finding that less attention is often paid to the fact that older drivers are less likely to be involved in single-vehicle accidents that are caused by a lack of control, or collisions due to speeding or risking overtaking of another car." (p.250). He uses very few tables and charts. My biggest objection is his lack of critical evaluation. While he reviews many studies, he never stops to comment on their strengths and weaknesses. And he never considers the possibility of reverse causation. I envision an author who summarized lots of studies on lots of notecards and who then organized the note cards and copied their contents into a book format.

Very rare item. I am surprised the author of this book does not do a new edition. Overall every thing was all good.

I used the book Epidemiology of Aging: An Ecological Approach - for a graduate course and now I keep it on my desk and use it as a reference constantly. Dr. Satariano embarked in a huge and very difficult task when he decided to summarize the epidemiological aspects of aging. His approach uses an ecological model and reviews social, demographic, functional and physical factors related to aging. He masterfully puts together an overview of research in the epidemiology of aging and is able to integrate the most important topics in aging and show the reader that these topics are related and how they affect the aging process as a whole. Dr. Satariano presents an excellent selection of what is being done in aging research and challenges the reader with well thought proposals of what needs to be done to learn more about the causes of many aging conditions and the consequences of the aging process for older adults. The book is clearly written and easy to follow. The framework he uses throughout the book has served me to update and interpret the aging literature that changes on a daily basis. I believe this book provides a good basis for any graduate student interested in the study of aging and a believe it is a good synopsis of key epidemiological aspects of aging for researchers in the field.

I recommend this book highly to all of my colleagues and students who want a comprehensive overview of public health and aging from an epidemiological perspective. Such a perspective is critical for the identification of risk factors and opportunities for intervention for promoting healthy aging. Although there are other books addressing similar topics, Dr. Satariano's volume is unique in its unified ecological approach. It serves as a foundational text for explicating the complex interactions among aging, health and the environment. While there is immediate value in the statistics documenting demographic and epidemiological trends, the conceptual approach which sets these statistics in context adds a timeless quality to the volume. In addition to providing illustrious data, the structure of the volume helps the reader interpret -and even add to--the growing body of literature about the rapidly aging population. What I found exceptionally useful was the new insights into key geriatric issues such as physical functioning and mobility, cognitive functioning, depression, and falls and frailty. Another strength is its emphasis on translational research, which is increasingly becoming recognized as essential for furthering multi-disciplinary public health research and practice necessary for promoting healthy aging at the population level . In my opinion, the only text that would be better than this volume is a second edition.