Perceived age discrimination in older adults

Abstract

Objectives: to examine perceived age discrimination in a large representative sample of older adults in England.Methods: this cross-sectional study of over 7,500 individuals used data from the fifth wave of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), a longitudinal cohort study of men and women aged 52 years and older in England. Wave 5 asked respondents about the frequency of five everyday discriminatory situations. Participants who attributed any experiences of discrimination to their age were treated as cases of perceived age discrimination. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the odds ratios of experiencing perceived age discrimination in relation to selected sociodemographic factors.Results: approximately a third (33.3%) of all respondents experienced age discrimination, rising to 36.8% in those aged 65 and over. Perceived age discrimination was associated with older age, higher education, lower levels of household wealth and being retired or not in employment. The correlates of age discrimination across the five discriminatory situations were similar.Conclusion: understanding age discrimination is vital if we are to develop appropriate policies and to target future interventions effectively. These findings highlight the scale of the challenge of age discrimination for older adults in England and illustrate that those groups are particularly vulnerable to this form of discrimination.

Perceived Age Discrimination: A Precipitator or a Consequence of Depressive Symptoms?

“…Education has been associated with both depressive symptoms and perceived discrimination. Higher levels of education are associated with lower levels of depression (Lynch & von Hippel, 2016), but higher levels of perceived age discrimination (Rippon, Kneale, de Oliveira, Demakakos, & Steptoe, 2014). Similarly, both marriage and employment are protective mechanisms in the face of depression (Montgomery, Cook, Bartley, & Wadsworth, 1999;Strine et al, 2015) and in the case of perceived ageism (Luo, Xu, Granberg, & Wentworth, 2011;Rippon et al, 2014).…”

“…Higher levels of education are associated with lower levels of depression (Lynch & von Hippel, 2016), but higher levels of perceived age discrimination (Rippon, Kneale, de Oliveira, Demakakos, & Steptoe, 2014). Similarly, both marriage and employment are protective mechanisms in the face of depression (Montgomery, Cook, Bartley, & Wadsworth, 1999;Strine et al, 2015) and in the case of perceived ageism (Luo, Xu, Granberg, & Wentworth, 2011;Rippon et al, 2014). Lower socioeconomic status, on the other hand, has shown to be a risk for depressive symptoms (Elovainio et al, 2012) as well as for perceived ageism (Rippon et al, 2014;Rippon, Zaninotto, & Steptoe, 2015).…”

Psychometric properties of the Negative Stereotypes Towards Aging Questionnaire (CENVE) among a sample of Portuguese adults

“…It can take many forms, including prejudicial attitudes, discriminatory practices, or institutional policies and practices that perpetuate stereotypical beliefs (Smith, Bergeron, Cowart, Ahn, Towne, et al, 2016). Agism includes cognitive, behavioral, and emotional manifestations (Ayalon & Tesch-Römer, 2017) and reinforces social inequalities (Rippon, Kneale, de Oliveira, Demakakos, & Steptoe, 2014).…”

“…Agism and negative attitudes can influence the potential for healthy and active aging (Nelson, 2016;Rippon et al, 2014). In fact, stereotypes about aging have a significant influence on older people themselves and can deleteriously impact their health, reduce autonomy, independence, and quality of life (Swift et al, 2017).…”

Taking a closer look at ageism: self- and other-directed ageist attitudes and discrimination

“…We note, also, that ageism is a complex domain that includes cognitive, behavioural and emotional manifestations (Iversen et al 2009). Moreover, ageism tends to reinforce social inequalities as it is more pronounced towards older women, poor people or those with dementia (Barnett 2005;Rippon et al 2014).…”