This study explores differences in the out-of-home behavior of community-dwelling older adults with different cognitive impairment. Three levels of complexity of out-of-home behavior were distinguished: (a) mostly automatized walking behavior (low complexity), (b) global out-of-home mobility (medium complexity), and (c) defined units of concrete out-of-home activities, particularly cognitively demanding activities (high complexity). A sample of 257 older adults aged 59 to 91 years (M = 72.9 years, SD = 6.4 years) included 35 persons with early-stage Alzheimer's disease (AD), 76 persons with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 146 cognitively healthy persons (CH). Mobility data were gathered by using a GPS tracking device as well as by questionnaire. Predicting cognitive impairment status by out-of-home behavior and a range of confounders by means of multinomial logistic regression revealed that only cognitively demanding activities showed at least a marginally significant difference between MCI and CH and were highly significant between AD and CH.

Objective Nonspecific chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a frequent medical condition among middle-aged and older adults. Its detrimental consequences for functional ability and quality of life are well known. However, less is known about associations of chronological age with disability and well-being among CLBP patients. Coping with pain may be harder with advancing age due to additional age-associated losses of physical, sensory, and other resources, resulting in higher disability and lower quality of life. Alternatively, older patients may feel less impaired and report higher quality of life than younger patients because the experience of chronic pain may be better anticipated and more “normative” in old age. Methods We investigated an age-heterogeneous sample of 228 CLBP patients (mean age = 59.1 years, SD = 10.2 years, range 41–82 years). Our outcomes were pain intensity, pain disability (as assessed by self-reported activity restrictions and performance-based tests), and measures of quality of life (health-related quality of life: SF-12 physical and mental health; well-being: anxiety, depression, perceived control over life, affective distress). Results Although older patients had higher performance-based disability, they scored higher on mental health and on most measures of well-being than younger patients. Conclusions Our findings provide evidence for a “paradoxical” pattern of age effects in CLBP patients and are thus in line with other studies based on nonclinical samples: Although disability in CLBP patients increases with advancing age, indicators of quality of life are equal or even higher in older patients.

This study explores the relationship between out-of-home behavior and daily mood of community-dwelling older adults with different levels of cognitive impairment across four consecutive weeks. The sample included 16 persons with early stage Alzheimer's disease (AD), 30 persons with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 95 cognitively healthy persons (CH). Using a multi-method approach, GPS tracking and daily-diary data were combined on a day-to-day basis. AD and MCI adults showed lower mood than the CH group. Whereas stronger positive links between mood and out-of-home behavior were found for AD compared to the total sample on an aggregate level, predicting daily mood by person (i.e., cognition) and occasion-specific characteristics (i.e., mobility and weekday), using multilevel regression analysis revealed no corresponding effect. In conclusion, cognitive status in old age appears to impact on mobility and mood as such, rather than on the mood and out-of-home behavior connection.

Using data from the German Ageing Survey (Deutscher Alterssurvey, DEAS; N = 4,712), this study examined age-related change in three dimensions of self-perceptions of aging (SPA): perceptions of physical losses, social losses, and ongoing development. Participants ranged in age from 40 to 85 years at study entry (1996, 2002, or 2008) and were followed for up to 21 years. Time-invariant, context-specific and timevarying, person-specific predictors of the observed age-related changes were examined. Findings from longitudinal multilevel regression analyses showed significant nonlinear age-related change for all three dimensions. Specifically, starting at about age 65, participants showed age-related increases in perceptions of physical and social losses, with increases getting steeper in old age. Starting at about age 55, participants reported increasingly fewer perceptions related to ongoing development. The decline in perceptions of ongoing development also became increasingly steeper after age 70. Region of residence was a significant context-specific predictor of the intercepts of the three SPA dimensions. Health-related variables (i.e., number of chronic diseases, self-rated health), affective well-being (i.e., positive and negative affect), and measures of social integration (i.e., loneliness) were significant person-specific predictors. Health-related variables had their strongest association with perceptions of physical losses, whereas negative affect and loneliness had their strongest association with perceptions of social losses. Positive affect had its strongest association with perceptions of ongoing development. This study is the first one to describe age-related change trajectories in multiple dimensions of SPA and significant predictors of these change trajectories.

Research on relationships between personality and cognitive abilities has so far resulted in inconsistent findings regarding the strength of the associations. Moreover, relationships have rarely been compared longitudinally and bidirectionally between midlife versus late-life cohorts by considering different personality traits as well as multiple cognitive domains over a long-term follow-up period. We hypothesize that the interplay between the "Big Five" personality traits (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness) and cognitive abilities (information processing speed, crystallized intelligence, fluid intelligence) may change from midlife to old age due to age-associated changes in cognitive and personality plasticity. We used data from the German Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Study of Adult Development (ILSE study; n = 1,002). Participants were either born in 1950/52 (midlife sample, n = 502) or in 1930/32 (late-life sample, n = 500) and followed up for up to 12 years. Based on bivariate latent change score regression models (adjusted for gender, education, self-rated and physician-rated health), we observed that, apart from very few exceptions, the intervariable cross-lagged associations between personality traits and cognitive abilities were generally similar between cohorts. Moreover, in case of neuroticism, extraversion, and openness, the effects of cognitive abilities on change in personality were stronger than the reversed effects. Our findings thus suggest that the so far predominant perspective of personality in middle adulthood and late-life as a predictor, rather than as an outcome, of cognitive abilities needs more differentiation and reconsideration. (PsycINFO Database Record

We examined stability, change, and dedifferentiation of well-being in 124 participants with a baseline age between 87 and 97 years (M = 90.56, SD = 2.92) across 7 measurement occasions over 4 years. Measures of hedonic (life satisfaction, positive affect and negative affect) and eudaimonic well-being (autonomy, purpose in life, self-acceptance, environmental mastery), as well as indicators of mental distress (depressive symptoms, attitudes toward death and dying, disease phobia) were included. Average levels indicated high well-being at all measurement occasions in the majority of indicators analyzed. However, mean numbers of depressive symptoms were close to the cutoff point of clinical depression. Analyses of intra-individual correlations revealed high loadings of depressive symptoms, positive affect, and environmental mastery on a common factor. However, several well-being indicators were not substantially interrelated on the intra-individual level, suggesting their trajectories were rather independent of each other. Acceptance of death and dying was surprisingly high and even increased, whereas mean levels in fear of death were very low and declined over time. Overall, our findings do not suggest late-life dedifferentiation of well-being trajectories in very-old age. Our results rather support the need to consider indicators of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, as well as mental distress, to understand the multifaceted and multidirectional dynamics of well-being in very-old age.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has led to profound changes in individuals’ lives and might have meaningful implications for well-being. We investigated if and how two major indicators of well-being (life satisfaction and depressive symptoms) changed in Germany from a prepandemic measurement occasion (2017) to June/July 2020, the time of the fading first wave of COVID-19. This change was compared with prepandemic change between 2014 and 2017. We also analyzed whether change in well-being varied according to age, self-rated health, corona-specific attitudes, and subjective standard of living. Ten thousand seven-hundred and ninety three individuals had taken part in at least one of the measurement occasions between 2014 and 2020 (mean age in 2014: 64.30 years; SD = 11.58 years). Based on latent change score models controlling for baseline well-being and sociodemographic indicators, we found, across both time intervals (2014–2017, 2017–2020) and independent of individuals’ age, a small mean-level increase in life satisfaction. In contrast, depressive symptoms increased from 2017 to 2020, particularly among older participants, whereas they remained, on average, stable between 2014 and 2017. Individuals with a poorer self-rated health, who felt more threatened by the pandemic and whose subjective standard of living was lower revealed a decrease in life satisfaction and a steeper increase in depressive symptoms between 2017 and 2020. Our findings thus suggest that whereas life satisfaction remained quite stable, the pandemic was, already 3–4 months after its onset in Germany, accompanied by an increase in depressive symptoms, particularly among adults who were older, felt less healthy and were more concerned about COVID-19.

Indicators of objective functioning, such as everyday competence or sensory and sensorimotor functions, typically show pronounced declines in very old age. However, less is known about how very old adults perceive their abilities across multiple domains of health and functioning and to what extent changes in perceived functioning mirror changes in objective functioning. We compared changes in perceived versus objective health and functioning indicators among very old adults (n = 124; baseline age between 87 and 97 years, M = 90.56 years, SD = 2.92 years) across 11 measurement occasions, spanning approximately 5 years. Functioning was assessed by self-reports (subjective health, subjective movement ability, subjective vision, and number of perceived symptoms) and by objective and mostly performance-based tests (everyday competence, visual acuity, chair stand test, and grip strength). All objective measures exhibited a significant mean-level decline across 5 years, whereas most subjective indicators did not reveal significant mean-level changes. Interindividual variation in intraindividual change patterns was considerable in most domains. Correlations between trajectories of the different indicators were mostly weak, and predicting late-life changes in subjective functioning by time-varying objective functioning indicators accounted for only modest amounts of variance. Our findings suggest that there is a somewhat paradoxical pattern of discrepant late-life change trends in subjective versus objective indicators of health and functioning. We argue that a differentiated understanding of the fourth age is required and that common health definitions frequently applied to old and very old age need to be challenged. (PsycINFO Database Record