Sex, age, education, marital status, obesity, and smoking have been found to affect health transitions between non-disabled, disabled, and death. Our aim is to review the research literature on this topic and provide structured information, first on the availability of results for each risk factor and transition, and then on detailed study characteristics and disability measures. We use expert recommendations and the electronic databases Medline, PsycINFO, and SOCA. The search is confined to the years 1985-2005, and produced a total of 7,778 articles. Sixty-three articles met the selection criteria regarding study population, longitudinal design, risk factors, transition, and outcome measures.