Robertson Deirdre A, King-Kallimanis Bellinda L, Kenny Rose Anne
The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, Department of Medical Gerontology, Trinity College Dublin.
Department of Medical Gerontology, Trinity College Dublin.
Psychol Aging. 2016 Feb;31(1):71-81. doi: 10.1037/pag0000061. Epub 2015 Dec 21.
Perceptions of aging have been shown to impact the psychological and physical health of older adults. Experimental studies have found that priming older adults with negative attitudes toward aging results in immediate declines in psychological, physical and cognitive functions. Longitudinal studies have supported this work illustrating the longer term impact of negative and positive perceptions of aging on psychological and physical health. However, it is surprising that there are a limited number of studies that have investigated the longitudinal association between perceptions of aging and cognitive function. The aim of this article is therefore to explore the association between perceptions of aging and cognitive function across a number of domains in a population representative sample of adults aged 50 and older. The sample was assessed twice over 2 years. Negative perceptions of aging at baseline were independently associated with longitudinal decline in verbal fluency and self-rated memory over a 2-year period after adjustment for physical and mental health. These findings suggest that negative perceptions of aging may play a role in cognitive decline in the older population. Furthermore, aging perceptions may be a modifiable factor to target for future interventions.
研究表明，对衰老的认知会影响老年人的心理和身体健康。实验研究发现，用对衰老的消极态度引导老年人会导致其心理、身体和认知功能立即下降。纵向研究支持了这项工作，说明了对衰老的消极和积极认知对心理和身体健康的长期影响。然而，令人惊讶的是，研究衰老认知与认知功能之间纵向关联的研究数量有限。因此，本文的目的是在一个具有人口代表性的50岁及以上成年人样本中，探讨多个领域中衰老认知与认知功能之间的关联。该样本在两年内进行了两次评估。在对身心健康进行调整后，基线时对衰老的消极认知与两年期间语言流畅性和自评记忆力的纵向下降独立相关。这些发现表明，对衰老的消极认知可能在老年人群的认知衰退中起作用。此外，衰老认知可能是未来干预的一个可改变因素。
