School of Medicine, Institute of Mental Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
Institute of Psychology, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2023 Dec 6;78(12):2026-2036. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbad150.
The bidirectionality between self-perceptions of aging and health-related outcomes may depend on age group. Therefore, we tested such bidirectionality among individuals in late midlife (50-64 years), young-old age (65-74 years), and old-old age (75+ years), taking advantage of the construct of Awareness of Age-Related Change (AARC) and its 2-dimensionality in terms of AARC-gains and AARC-losses. Various conceptualizations of physical, mental, and cognitive functioning were used as outcomes.
Data from 2 measurement occasions (2019 and 2020) from the UK PROTECT study for individuals in late midlife (N = 2,385), young-old age (N = 2,430), and old-old age (N = 539) were used. Data on self-reported functional difficulties, depression, anxiety, and performance on four computerized cognitive tasks (i.e., verbal reasoning, paired associate learning, self-ordered search, and digit span) providing a score for verbal reasoning and a score for working memory were analyzed using cross-lagged panel models.
Across all 3 age groups, the bidirectional associations of AARC-gains with indicators of functioning were not significant, whereas higher AARC-losses significantly predicted slightly greater functional difficulties and higher depression and anxiety levels. Higher AARC-losses predicted slightly poorer Verbal Reasoning only in old-old age and poorer Working Memory predicted slightly higher AARC-losses only in young-old age. The remaining associations of AARC-losses with cognitive tasks were not statistically significant.
In accordance with previous research targeting other indicators of self-perceptions of aging, this study supported a stronger impact of AARC-losses on indicators of physical functioning and mental health than vice versa from midlife to old-old age.
自我衰老感知与健康相关结果之间的双向关系可能取决于年龄组。因此，我们利用年龄相关变化意识（AARC）及其在 AARC 增益和 AARC 损失方面的二维性，在中年后期（50-64 岁）、年轻老年（65-74 岁）和老年老年（75+岁）个体中测试了这种双向关系，利用了身体、心理和认知功能的各种概念化作为结果。
来自英国 PROTECT 研究的 2 个测量时间点（2019 年和 2020 年）的数据用于中年后期（N=2385）、年轻老年（N=2430）和老年老年（N=539）个体。使用自我报告的功能困难、抑郁、焦虑以及四项计算机认知任务（即言语推理、配对联想学习、自我排序搜索和数字跨度）的表现来分析数据，提供言语推理分数和工作记忆分数。采用交叉滞后面板模型进行分析。
在所有 3 个年龄组中，AARC 增益与功能指标的双向关联均不显著，而较高的 AARC 损失显著预测了稍大的功能困难以及更高的抑郁和焦虑水平。在老年老年中，较高的 AARC 损失仅预测了稍差的言语推理，而在年轻老年中，较差的工作记忆仅预测了稍高的 AARC 损失。AARC 损失与认知任务的其余关联在统计学上并不显著。
与针对其他自我衰老感知指标的先前研究一致，本研究支持从中年到老年，AARC 损失对身体功能和心理健康指标的影响大于反之。
