Robertson Deirdre A, Savva George M, King-Kallimanis Bellinda L, Kenny Rose Anne
TILDA (The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing), Department of Medical Gerontology, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
School of Health Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, Norfolk, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2015 Apr 29;10(4):e0123260. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0123260. eCollection 2015.
Walking speed is a meaningful marker of physical function in the aging population. While it is a primarily physical measure, experimental studies have shown that merely priming older adults with negative stereotypes about aging results in immediate declines in objective walking speed. What is not clear is whether this is a temporary experimental effect or whether negative aging stereotypes have detrimental effects on long term objective health. We sought to explore the association between baseline negative perceptions of aging in the general population and objective walking speed 2 years later.
4,803 participations were assessed over 2 waves of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), a prospective, population representative study of adults aged 50+ in the Republic of Ireland. Wave 1 measures - which included the Aging Perceptions Questionnaire, walking speed and all covariates - were taken between 2009 and 2011. Wave 2 measures - which included a second measurement of walking speed and covariates - were collected 2 years later between March and December 2012. Walking speed was measured as the number of seconds to complete the Timed Up-And-Go (TUG) task. Participations with a history of stroke, Parkinson's disease or an MMSE < 18 were excluded.
After full adjustment for all covariates (age, gender, level of education, disability, chronic conditions, medications, global cognition and baseline TUG) negative perceptions of aging at baseline were associated with slower TUG speed 2 years later (B=.03, 95% CI = .01 to 05, p< .05).
Walking speed has previously been considered to be a consequence of physical decline but these results highlight the direct role of psychological state in predicting an objective aging outcome. Negative perceptions about aging are a potentially modifiable risk factor of some elements of physical decline in aging.
步行速度是老年人群体身体功能的一个重要指标。虽然它主要是一项身体指标，但实验研究表明，仅仅用关于衰老的负面刻板印象引导老年人，就会导致其客观步行速度立即下降。尚不清楚这是一种暂时的实验效应，还是负面衰老刻板印象对长期客观健康有不利影响。我们试图探究普通人群基线时对衰老的负面认知与两年后的客观步行速度之间的关联。
在爱尔兰纵向老龄化研究（TILDA）的两轮研究中，对4803名参与者进行了评估，TILDA是一项针对爱尔兰共和国50岁及以上成年人的前瞻性、具有人群代表性的研究。第一轮测量——包括衰老认知问卷、步行速度和所有协变量——于2009年至2011年期间进行。第二轮测量——包括步行速度和协变量的第二次测量——在两年后的2012年3月至12月期间收集。步行速度通过完成定时起立行走（TUG）任务所需的秒数来测量。有中风、帕金森病病史或简易精神状态检查表（MMSE）得分<18的参与者被排除。
在对所有协变量（年龄、性别、教育程度、残疾、慢性病、药物、整体认知和基线TUG）进行全面调整后，基线时对衰老的负面认知与两年后的TUG速度较慢有关（B = 0.03，95%置信区间 = 0.01至0.05，p < 0.05）。
步行速度以前被认为是身体衰退的结果，但这些结果突出了心理状态在预测客观衰老结果方面的直接作用。对衰老的负面认知是衰老过程中身体衰退某些方面的一个潜在可改变的风险因素。
