The Subjective Health Horizon Questionnaire (SHH-Q): Assessing Future Time Perspectives for Facets of an Active Lifestyle

Abstract

Background: A wider subjective time horizon is assumed to be positively associated with longevity and vitality. In particular, a lifestyle with exposure to novel and varied information is considered beneficial for healthy cognitive aging. At present, measures that specifically assess individuals' perceived temporal extension to engage in active lifestyles in the future are not available. Objectives: We introduce and validate a new self-report measure, the Subjective Health Horizon Questionnaire (SHH-Q). The SHH-Q assesses individuals' future time perspectives in relation to four interrelated but distinct lifestyle dimensions: (1) novelty-oriented exploration (Novelty), (2) bodily fitness (Body), (3) work goals (Work), and (4) goals in life (Life Goals). The present study aims at: (a) validating the hypothesized factor structure of the SHH-Q, according to which the SHH-Q consists of four interrelated but distinct subscales, and (b) testing the hypothesis that the Novelty and Body subscales of the SHH-Q show positive and selective associations with markers of cognition and somatic health, respectively. Methods: Using structural equation modeling, we analyzed data from 1,371 healthy individuals (51% women) with a mean age of 70.1 years (SD = 3.6) who participated in the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II) and completed the SHH-Q. Results: As predicted, the SHH-Q formed four correlated but distinct subscales: (1) Novelty, (2) Body, (3) Work, and (4) Life Goals. Greater self-reported future novelty orientation was associated with higher current memory performance, and greater future expectations regarding bodily fitness with better current metabolic status. Conclusion: The SHH-Q reliably assesses individual differences in four distinct dimensions of future time perspective. Two of these dimensions, Novelty and Body, show differential associations with cognitive status and somatic health. The SHH-Q may serve as a tool to assess how different facets of future time perspective relate to somatic health, cognition, motivation, and affect, and may help to identify the socioeconomic and individual antecedents, correlates, and consequences of an active lifestyle.

Facets of Subjective Health Horizons Are Differentially Linked to Brain Volume

“…The results demonstrate that individual differences in these two domains of FTP are variously associated with the structural integrity of specific brain regions. These findings are striking as they are in line with our previous behavioral findings showing that individuals distinguish between physical and cognitive aspects (Düzel et al, 2016) when judging different lifestyle aspects of their FTP. Figure 2 summarizes this assumption in a first tentative framework for the SHH-Q Novelty dimension, suggesting that the FTP for engaging in novel and cognitively stimulating activities may depend on the integrity of brain regions of the episodic memory system for two reasons: First, individuals may use their current episodic memory performance as a subjective reference in order to estimate of how long they will be able, e.g., to learn novel information, how well they will orient in unknown environments, or remember the names of new people.…”

Higher rostral locus coeruleus integrity is associated with better memory performance in older adults

“…The baseline cognitive assessment of BASE-II (T1) and its follow-up (T2) included an assessment of working memory, episodic memory and fluid intelligence in small group sessions of about 6 individuals using a computerized battery of 21 tasks (for a description of the complete battery, please refer to 89 ). Each test session lasted approximately 3.5 hours.…”

“…Making use of the comprehensive cognitive battery available for this data set, we additionally integrated performance over a variety of episodic memory tasks to retrieve a general measure of episodic memory as previously described 89 while explicitly excluding RAVLT data (see Supplemental results). In particular, we incorporated information of a visual face-profession, object-location, and scene encoding task.…”

“…In particular, we incorporated information of a visual face-profession, object-location, and scene encoding task. For detailed task descriptions, please refer to 89 . In short, the visual face-profession task (FPT) involved subjects studying the 45 pairs of face images and profession words.…”

“…In a similar vein, we integrated performance over a variety of memory tasks to estimate a general episodic memory score using a multiple-group single factor structural equation model as previously described 89 (see Figure 4 in Supplemental results). In particular, in each age group performance in the visual faceprofession, objectlocation, and scene encoding tasks served as manifest variables and loaded on a single latent episodic memory factor.…”