Participants were 2,359 community-dwelling volunteers drawn from the BLSA, an ongoing multidisciplinary study of aging, who had completed the GZTS survey. Age at first personality assessment ranged from 17 to 98 years (M = 50.1, SD = 16.9). BLSA participants are generally healthy and highly educated (M = 16.2 years of education, SD = 2.8); the present sample is 85% European-American, 11% African-American, and 4% other self-identified ethnic groups. There were 1,472 men and 887 women. Personality (GZTS), smoking, and anthropometrical measures were collected during the same regularly scheduled visit, for men starting in October 1958, and for women in January 1978, and continuing until May 2002 (39).
