Longitudinal Change of Self-Perceptions of Aging and Mortality

Abstract

These findings suggest that a single measurement of SPA in late life may be very informative of future long-term vulnerability to health decline and mortality. Furthermore, a dynamic measure of SPA may be indicative of adaptation to age-related changes. This supports a "self-fulfilling" hypothesis, whereby SPA is a lens through which age-related changes are interpreted, and these interpretations can affect future health and health behaviors.

Attitudes to Ageing and Change in Frailty Status: The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

“…Longitudinal studies have shown that older people who have a more negative perception of ageing - seeing it as a time of increasing ill health, social isolation, loss of ability to perform usual activities and loss of independence - tend to experience an increase in depressive symptoms [1] and have a higher risk of incident anxiety or depression [2]. Having a more negative view of ageing has also been associated prospectively with declines in cognitive ability [3], in objectively measured physical function [4,5], in self-reported functional health [6] and in self-rated health [7] as well as an increased risk of the onset of difficulties in activities of daily living [8] and a higher mortality [9]. The potential influence of such attitudes may extend over many years: in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Ageing, participants holding more negative views of ageing had a steeper decline in hippocampal volume and a greater accumulation of other Alzheimer disease biomarkers - amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles - more than 20 years later [10].…”

Correlates of Attitudes Toward Personal Aging in Older Assisted Living Residents

“…Also, they seemed to be generally satisfied with the facilities resided in and with the social support they received. The mean scores for health perception and attitudes toward personal aging were 17.5 (SD = 4.2) and 2.34 (SD = 1.7), respectively, indicating that the older AL residents in this study had poorer perceived health and negative attitudes toward personal aging compared to community-dwelling samples (Jang et al, 2004;Kim et al, 2012;Sargent-Cox et al, 2014).…”

“…Negative beliefs about aging seem to have a powerful influence on older adults' health behavior and well-being (Dobbs et al, 2008;Kornadt & Rothermund, 2012;Levy, Zonderman, Slade, & Ferrucci, 2009;Mock & Eibach, 2011). In the gerontological literature, an individual's beliefs and expectations about personal aging have been linked with such outcomes as memory performance (Levy, 2003;Schafer & Shippee, 2010), mortality (Sargent-Cox, Anstey, & Luszcz, 2014;Uotinen, Rantanen, & Suutama, 2005), and psychological well-being (Blazer, 2008;Westerhof & Barrett, 2005). Levy et al (2002), for example, found that attitudes toward one's own aging predicted functional decline more powerfully than self-rated health and demographic factors over an 18-year period.…”

“…Levy et al (2002), for example, found that attitudes toward one's own aging predicted functional decline more powerfully than self-rated health and demographic factors over an 18-year period. It is, therefore, not surprising that favorable views on one's own age and aging promote psychological well-being, whereas the opposite adversely influences responses to disease and health behaviors Sargent-Cox et al, 2014;Westerhof & Barrett, 2005).…”

Growing Older and Staying Positive: Associations Between Diverse Aging Women’s Perceptions of Age and Body Satisfaction

“…This may be because women who feel older may be facing greater functional limitations. Interestingly, self-perceptions of aging have been linked to changes in physical functioning (Sargent-Cox et al 2014), and experimentally manipulating subjective age to make adults feel younger has been associated with better physical functioning (Levy et al 2014;Stephan et al 2013). It is important to note that facing functional limitations does not necessarily indicate lower satisfaction for all older adults.…”