At both the individual and societal levels, the health and economic burden of disability in older adults is enormous in developed countries, including the U.S. Recent studies have revealed that the disablement process in older adults often comprises episodic periods of impaired functioning and...

In behavioral, biomedical, and psychological studies, structural equation models (SEMs) have been widely used for assessing relationships between latent variables. Regression-type structural models based on parametric functions are often used for such purposes. In many applications, however,...