Sliwinski Martin, Hoffman Lesa, Hofer Scott M
Pennsylvania State University.
Res Hum Dev. 2010 Jan;7(1):45-60. doi: 10.1080/15427600903578169.
The distinction of between-person age differences from within-person age changes is necessary for understanding aging-related change processes. Although longitudinal studies are required to address issues relating to within person change, most studies begin using age-heterogeneous samples and conclude using survival-heterogeneous samples. Given the numerous potential confounds associated with age-heterogeneous samples, careful treatment of between-person age differences is essential to obtain the correct inferences regarding within-person age change. We demonstrate how failure to differentiate between-person age effects (and by extension, of survival age or other effects producing sample heterogeneity) will lead to uninterpretable inferences regarding within-person change. We recommend that convergence of age differences and age changes be formally evaluated whenever possible.
区分个体间年龄差异和个体内年龄变化对于理解与衰老相关的变化过程至关重要。尽管需要纵向研究来解决与个体内变化相关的问题，但大多数研究开始时使用年龄异质性样本，结束时使用生存异质性样本。鉴于与年龄异质性样本相关的众多潜在混杂因素，谨慎处理个体间年龄差异对于获得关于个体内年龄变化的正确推断至关重要。我们展示了未能区分个体间年龄效应（以及由此延伸的生存年龄效应或产生样本异质性的其他效应）如何导致关于个体内变化的不可解释的推断。我们建议尽可能正式评估年龄差异和年龄变化的趋同性。
