Perceived Discrimination and Physical, Cognitive, and Emotional Health in Older Adulthood

Abstract

Objective To examine whether perceived discrimination based on multiple personal characteristics is associated with physical, emotional, and cognitive health concurrently, prospectively, and with change in health over time among older adults. Design : Longitudinal Setting Health and Retirement Study (HRS) Participants Participants (N=7,622) who completed the Leave-Behind Questionnaire as part of the 2006 HRS assessment (mean age 67); participants (n=6,450) completed the same health measures again in 2010. Measurements Participants rated their everyday experience with discrimination and attributed those experiences to eight personal characteristics: race, ancestry, sex, age, weight, physical disability, appearance, and/or sexual orientation. At both the 2006 and 2010 assessments, participants completed measures of physical health (subjective health, disease burden), emotional health (life satisfaction, loneliness), and cognitive health (memory, mental status). Results Discrimination based on age, weight, physical disability, and appearance was associated with poor subjective health, greater disease burden, lower life satisfaction and greater loneliness at both assessments and with declines in health across the four years. Discrimination based on race, ancestry, sex, and sexual orientation was associated with greater loneliness at both time points, but not with change over time. Discrimination was mostly unrelated to cognitive health. Conclusions The detrimental effect of discrimination on physical and emotional health is not limited to young adulthood but continues to contribute to health and well-being in old age. These effects were driven primarily by discrimination based on personal characteristics that change over time (e.g., age, weight) rather than discrimination based on more stable characteristics (e.g., race, sex).

Measuring the effect of ethnic and non-ethnic discrimination on Europeans’ self-rated health

“…In line with the present finding, it is necessary to mention how a recent study highlights the relevance of discrimination based on age, weight, physical disability, and appearance to produce poor subjective health, greater disease burden, and lower life satisfaction (Sutin et al 2015). This work shows how perceived discrimination based on age, disabilities, and personal characteristics might even produce stronger effects on health outcomes than other types of discrimination based on race, ethnicity or sexual orientation.…”

“…This work shows how perceived discrimination based on age, disabilities, and personal characteristics might even produce stronger effects on health outcomes than other types of discrimination based on race, ethnicity or sexual orientation. Obviously, this surprising result should not dismiss the relevance of racial or ethnic types of discrimination to explain health outcomes, however, this study-as ours-indicates that discrimination based on age may have particularly adverse consequences on health and well being (Alvarez-Galvez and Salvador-Carulla 2013; Sutin et al 2015).…”

Pathways from Ageism to Loneliness

“…Thus an experience of being negatively stereotyped can immediately lead a person to feel lonelier. Sutin et al (2015) explored the longitudinal relationship between perceived discrimination and subsequent loneliness in a nationally representative sample of adults 50 years and older in the American Health and Retirement Survey. The study followed 7622 participants (average age 67.5) over a 5 year period, measuring their baseline levels of everyday perceived discrimination and subsequent reports of loneliness.…”

Does Knowing Hurt? Perceiving Oneself as Overweight Predicts Future Physical Health and Well-Being

“…Taken together, this emerging evidence suggests that the psychosocial experience attached to self-identifying as 'overweight' may be stressful, leading to weight gain and potentially broader more far reaching health consequences, such as physiological dysfunction (Sutin, Stephan, Carretta, & Terracciano, 2015).…”