The US government's National Institute on Aging (NIA) has conducted an extremely detailed, long-term study of more than 1200 citizens of the city of Baltimore, Maryland who currently range in age from their early 20's into their 90's. This is a "longitudinal" study which means that the individual participants are followed over decades, passing through full physical and psychological examinations every two years. As a result, this study can give us an idea of what happens to real people as they age that a study at only one point in time could never do. You can read more about the Baltimore Longitudinal Study on Aging at its website.

However, you can download a copy of the Study's "Selected Research Findings" right here at this site. The report is available as an Adobe Acrobat file and its ten pages are a fascinating summary of research results on twenty subjects as diverse as brain activity, personality changes, and the effects of alcohol.

Click here to download the report. Remember to "save" it on to your hard drive if you want to keep a copy and use the "back" button when you want to return to this site.

If you need it, you can download Adobe Acrobat here.