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Validation of a Psychosocial Intervention on Body Image in Older People: An Experimental Design
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Health and Subjective Views on Aging: Longitudinal Findings From the ActiFE Ulm Study
Anton Schönstein1, Dhayana Dallmeier2,3, Michael Denkinger2
1Network Aging Research (NAR), Heidelberg University, Germany.
Summary
Affective health problems like depression significantly impact views on aging (VoA), including subjective age (SA) and attitudes toward aging (ATOA). Even non-life-threatening diseases are linked to VoA, with ATOA showing greater explained variance than SA.
Area of Science:
- Gerontology
- Psychology of Aging
- Public Health
Background:
- Subjective views on aging (VoA), encompassing subjective age (SA) and attitudes toward own aging (ATOA), are linked to adverse outcomes.
- A comprehensive understanding of health and disease as predictors of VoA is lacking.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between physical, affective, and cognitive health, as well as specific diseases, and VoA.
- To differentiate the influence of health and disease on SA and ATOA.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from the ActiFE Ulm study, including a representative sample of community-dwelling older adults (65-90 years).
- Regressed baseline health and disease data on follow-up VoA measures (SA and ATOA) after a median of 7.7 years (N=526).
Main Results:
- Affective health problems, particularly depression, emerged as the strongest predictor for both older SA and negative ATOA.
- Specific diseases showed varied associations: back pain predicted negative ATOA, cancer was linked to older SA, and rheumatism was associated with both.
- The explained variance in ATOA was substantially higher than that observed for SA.
Conclusions:
- Affective health issues, such as depression, are significant correlates of subjective aging perceptions.
- Diseases, even those not life-threatening, demonstrate associations with older SA and negative ATOA.
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