Discusses the Compression of Morbidity hypothesis, which maintains that the age of onset of significant disability may be moved upward by postponement of chronic illness. Objections to the thesis are examined, a series of qualitative and quantitative confusions are discussed, and predictions for the future offered. (Author/JAC)

Argues that social gerontologists have adopted biomedical model of senile dementia, neglecting social factors involved in definition and interpretation of brain disease and in experience of dementing illness. Critiques biomedical model, including definition of pathology, attribution of behavioral changes to disease stages, and legitimation of…

Asserts that the idea that retirement increases risk of illness and death persists because of the availability of vivid anecdotes, a tendency to interpret big events as major causes of illness, cultural celebration of work, theoretical perspectives in gerontology fostering expectations that retirement is disruptive, and misinterpretation of…