Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, US.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2021 Sep 13;76(8):1574-1579. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbab002.
Research has demonstrated sense of purpose predicts better health in older adulthood. However, work is limited with respect to understanding how experiencing a health event or illness diagnosis impacts older adults' sense of purpose.
The current study employed a propensity score matching approach to compare older adults who did or did not experience an adverse health event on changes in sense of purpose across 3 waves of the Health and Retirement Study. Sense of purpose was assessed at each wave, and changes were compared between people who did versus did not experience one of 7 diagnoses and health events.
When propensity score matching was employed, no differences in trajectories of change for sense of purpose were found with respect to all 7 events. Individual differences in trajectories, however, were evidenced across groups.
The current findings suggest that even when health events impact older adults' physical functioning or place limitations on their activity, they may hold little ramifications for their sense of purpose. Future research should consider this potential for resilience, focusing on how adults compensate for losses.
研究表明，目标感可预测老年人的健康状况更佳。然而，目前对于了解健康事件或疾病诊断如何影响老年人的目标感的研究还很有限。
本研究采用倾向评分匹配方法，比较了在健康与退休研究的 3 个波次中经历或未经历不良健康事件的老年人在目标感上的变化。在每一波次都评估了目标感，比较了经历 7 种诊断和健康事件与未经历这些事件的人的变化情况。
当采用倾向评分匹配时，在所有 7 种事件方面，目标感变化的轨迹都没有差异。然而，在各个组中都存在轨迹上的个体差异。
目前的研究结果表明，即使健康事件影响老年人的身体功能或限制他们的活动，它们对老年人的目标感可能影响甚微。未来的研究应该考虑到这种潜在的适应力，关注成年人如何弥补损失。
