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Innov Aging
Innov Aging
innovateage
Innovation in Aging
2399-5300 Oxford University Press US 

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.2182
igaa057.2182
Abstracts
Session 5830 (Symposium)
AcademicSubjects/SOC02600
Diurnal Cortisol Profiles and Veteran Status
Piazza Jennifer 1 Landes Scott 2 Dmitrieva Natalia 3 1 
California State University, Fullerton, Fullerton, California, United States
2 
Aging Studies Institute – Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, United States
3 
Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, United States
2020 
16 12 2020 
16 12 2020 
4 Suppl 1 Program Abstracts from The GSA 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting “Turning 75: Why Age Matters”637 637
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.2020This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Abstract
Although veterans typically have better health and lower mortality risk than nonveterans earlier in life, a crossover occurs in later life, resulting in comparatively poorer health and higher mortality risk in older age. Alterations in biomarkers of physical health could be an initial indicator of this crossover. The current study uses data from the second wave of the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) survey. Previously validated cortisol profiles (Dmitrieva et al. 2013) were used to categorize participants (N = 1101, age range: 33-88) into normative and non-normative groups, that were examined in relation to veteran status. Results revealed a significant age by veteran interaction (β = .0331, p = .038), indicating that older veterans were less likely to belong to the normative profile group than non-veterans and younger veterans. Results demonstrate the need to explore underlying physiological mechanisms linking military service with poorer health in later life. Part of a symposium sponsored by the Aging Veterans: Effects of Military Service across the Life Course Interest Group.