This research found that older individuals with more positive self-perceptions of aging, measured up to 23 years earlier, lived 7.5 years longer than those with less positive self-perceptions of aging. This advantage remained after age, gender, socioeconomic status, loneliness, and functional health were included as covariates. It was also found that this effect is partially mediated by will to live. The sample consisted of 660 individuals aged 50 and older who participated in a community-based survey, the Ohio Longitudinal Study of Aging and Retirement (OLSAR). By matching the OLSAR to mortality data recently obtained from the National Death Index, the authors were able to conduct survival analyses. The findings suggest that the self-perceptions of stigmatized groups can influence longevity.

We examined whether those with more positive self-perceptions of aging (older individuals' beliefs about their own aging) report better functional health over an 18-year period than do those with more negative self-perceptions of aging. We found that those with more positive self-perceptions of aging in 1975 reported better functional health from 1977 to 1995, when we controlled for baseline measures of functional health, self-rated health, age, gender, race, and socioeconomic status. We also demonstrated that perceived control partially mediates the relationship between self-perceptions of aging and functioning. The sample consisted of 433 participants in the Ohio Longitudinal Study of Aging and Retirement, a community-based study of individuals aged 50 and older, who were interviewed in 6 waves. Our study suggests that the way in which individuals view their own aging affects their functional health.

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Epithelial injury, alternative macrophage accumulation, and fibroproliferation coexist in the lungs of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Chitinase 3–like 1 (CHI3L1) is a prototypic chitinase-like protein that has been retained over species and evolutionary time. However, the regulation of CHI3L1 in IPF and its ability to regulate injury and/or fibroproliferative repair have not been fully defined. We demonstrated that CHI3L1 levels were elevated in patients with IPF. High levels of CHI3L1 are associated with progression—as defined by lung transplantation or death—and with scavenger receptor–expressing circulating monocytes in an ambulatory IPF population. In preterminal acute exacerbations of IPF, CHI3L1 levels were reduced and associated with increased levels of apoptosis. We also demonstrated that in bleomycin-treated mice, CHI3L1 expression was acutely and transiently decreased during the injury phase and returned toward and eventually exceeded baseline levels during the fibrotic phase. In this model, CHI3L1 played a protective role in injury by ameliorating inflammation and cell death, and a profibrotic role in the repair phase by augmenting alternative macrophage activation, fibroblast proliferation, and matrix deposition. Using three-dimensional culture system of a human fibroblast cell line, we found that CHI3L1 is sufficient to induce low grade myofibroblast transformation. In combination, these studies demonstrate that CHI3L1 is stimulated in IPF, where it represents an attempt to diminish injury and induce repair. They also demonstrate that high levels of CHI3L1 are associated with disease progression in ambulatory patients and that a failure of the CHI3L1 antiapoptotic response might contribute to preterminal disease exacerbations.

BackgroundMild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) secondary to blast exposure is the most common battlefield injury in Southwest Asia. There has been little prospective work in the combat setting to test the efficacy of new countermeasures. The goal of this study was to compare the efficacy of N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) versus placebo on the symptoms associated with blast exposure mTBI in a combat setting.MethodsThis study was a randomized double blind, placebo-controlled study that was conducted on active duty service members at a forward deployed field hospital in Iraq. All symptomatic U.S. service members who were exposed to significant ordnance blast and who met the criteria for mTBI were offered participation in the study and 81 individuals agreed to participate. Individuals underwent a baseline evaluation and then were randomly assigned to receive either N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) or placebo for seven days. Each subject was re-evaluated at 3 and 7 days. Outcome measures were the presence of the following sequelae of mTBI: dizziness, hearing loss, headache, memory loss, sleep disturbances, and neurocognitive dysfunction. The resolution of these symptoms seven days after the blast exposure was the main outcome measure in this study. Logistic regression on the outcome of ‘no day 7 symptoms’ indicated that NAC treatment was significantly better than placebo (OR = 3.6, p = 0.006). Secondary analysis revealed subjects receiving NAC within 24 hours of blast had an 86% chance of symptom resolution with no reported side effects versus 42% for those seen early who received placebo.ConclusionThis study, conducted in an active theatre of war, demonstrates that NAC, a safe pharmaceutical countermeasure, has beneficial effects on the severity and resolution of sequelae of blast induced mTBI. This is the first demonstration of an effective short term countermeasure for mTBI. Further work on long term outcomes and the potential use of NAC in civilian mTBI is warranted.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT00822263

Background and Objectives The persistent status of ageism as one of the least acknowledged forms of prejudice may be due in part to an absence of quantifying its costs in economic terms. In this study, we calculated the costs of ageism on health conditions for all persons aged 60 years or older in the United States during 1 year. Research Design and Materials The ageism predictors were discrimination aimed at older persons, negative age stereotypes, and negative self-perceptions of aging. Health care costs of ageism were computed by combining analyses of the impact of the predictors with comprehensive health care spending data in 1 year for the eight most-expensive health conditions, among all Americans aged 60 years or older. As a secondary analysis, we computed the number of these health conditions experienced due to ageism. Results It was found that the 1-year cost of ageism was $63 billion, or one of every seven dollars spent on the 8 health conditions (15.4%), after adjusting for age and sex as well as removing overlapping costs from the three predictors. Also according to our model, ageism resulted in 17.04 million cases of these health conditions. Discussion and Implications This is the first study to identify the economic cost that ageism imposes on health. The findings suggest that a reduction of ageism would not only have a monetary benefit for society, but also have a health benefit for older persons.

These findings demonstrate a previously unrecognized and highly novel connection between metabolic reprogramming, mtDNA, fibroblast activation, and clinical outcomes that provides new insight into IPF.

This study shows that the adverse influence of negative self-stereotypes on cognitive performance is not limited to a short-term laboratory effect. Rather, the findings demonstrate, for the first time, that stereotypes also predict memory performance over an extended period in the community.