Since Isaacs made that statement, further giants of geriatric medicine, such as iatrogenesis, have been added to the list. The concept of geriatric syndromes has been universally accepted with internationally agreed-upon definitions and numerous guidelines for assessment and treatment. The last decade has seen a burgeoning interest in yet another giant: the frailty syndrome. Frailty can be thou...

By focusing on membership in voluntary associations in general, the question of whether correlates of affiliation vary by organizational type tends to have been neglected. This is a significant omission from the standpoint of describing the characteristics of “joiners.” Additionally, most of what we know about the reasons for belonging has been inferred from observations of who joins. In this s...