Showing papers in "Journal of Gerontology in 1975"

The Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale: A Revision

Abstract: The 22-item Philadelphia Geriatric Center (PGC) Morale Scale was subjected to a series of principal component analyses utilizing different item pools and rotating differing numbers of factors. Subjects were 1086 tenants of federally-assisted housing for the elderly and older people living in the community. Results were compared with analyses of the PGC Scale done by Morris and Sherwood. Consideration of factors defined by the analyses suggested three consistently reproduced factors: Agitation, Attitude Toward Own Aging, and Lonely Dissatisfaction, utilizing 17 of the original items. These results were compared with other multi-dimensional measures of morale: the Bradburn Affect Balance Scale, and morale scales reported by Pierce and Clark, and Schooler. In addition to the dimensions derived from the current study related domains of self-rated health, social accessibility, generalized attitude toward aging, and positive affect were suggested as worthy of further exploration as dimensions of morale.

Aging as exchange: a preface to theory.

Abstract: After a brief review of the major concepts and propositions of the social-psychological theory of exchange, a view of aging as exchange is developed. Drawing upon the previous work of Blau and Emerson, problems of aging are seen as problems of decreasing power resources. Because power resources decline with increased age, older persons become increasingly unable to enter into balanced exchange relations with other groups with whom they are in interactions. From this view, the process of disengagement is the result of a series of exchange relations in which the relative power of the aged vis-a-vis their exchange partner increasingly deteriorates. An imbalanced exchange ratio consequently results in which the aged are forced to exchange compliance--the most costly of all generalized reinforcers--for their continued sustenance. The retirement phenomenon is specified as illustrative of the aging as exchange process.

Reaction and movement time as a function of age and physical activity level.

Abstract: The SRT, DRT, and MT of older men (OA) who have experienced a life style of chronic physical activity were compared to those of nonactive men of similar age (ONA), and also to active (YA) and nonactive young men (YNA). Although activity level and age were significant factors, most of the activity level-by-age interaction in all but DRT was attributed to the slower performance of the ONAs. At least in this study, a life style of physical activity appeared to play a more dominant role in determining SRT, DRT, and MT than age. The hypothesis that most of the slowing of responses in the aged is attributable to CNS processing rather than MT decrements is repudiated, since MT results paralleled those of SRT and DRT.

Happiness and Social Participation in Aging

Abstract: This paper reports on a 4-year longitudinal study of 60 elderly women. Data about their happiness and social activities were collected using the Affect Balance Scale and nine measures of socially relevant activities, including three measures of media use, three of interpersonal interaction, and three of activities in voluntary associations. Direct relationships between happiness and social activity among elderly people were found in analysis of these data. This finding was not spurious according to longitudinal data: activity increments were associated with happiness and decrements with unhappiness. Although these findings describe the over-all picture, changes in activities may be more important to happiness among the most elderly persons interviewed than others.

Life-Span and the Inheritance of Longevity of Inbred Mice

Abstract: Measures of life-span were obtained for male and female A/J, BALB/cJ, C57BL/6J, and DBA/2J inbred mouse strains and the six possible hybrid combinations (N equals 500, 10 groups, 25 male and 25 female per group). C57BL/6J mice were long lived, while A/J, BALB/cJ and DBA/2J mice were short lived, with the exception of female BALB/cJ mice, which lived as long as C57BL/6J mice. Female BALB/cJ and two female hybrid mouse groups with a BALB/cJ parent lived longer than males, but significant sex differences were not obtained for other groups. In general, the mode of inheritance of longevity was overdominant. For a second study (N equals 400) of the longevity of A/J and C57BL/6J strains and F1 and F2 hybrids it was estimated that one genetic factor was associated with longevity and the coefficient of genetic determination for longevity was estimated as between .48 and .79.

Aging and Postural Sway in Women

Abstract: The effects of aging on postural sway in upright and forward lean stance were investigated. Postural sway was measured on a center of gravity apparatus using two age groups of female subjects 20 to 30 years old and 70 to 80 years old. The older adults demonstrated significantly larger sway areas than the young adults in both stance positions. The patterning of the center of gravity projections on the base of support tended to be similar under all conditions except in the young adults/upright position where the antero-postero excursion was larger than the medial-lateral. The mean locations of the center of gravity projections were often posterior and to the left of the geometric center of the base of support. The distance between the two points was least in the older adults/forward lean position, i.e., the experimental unit which demonstrated the largest area of sway.

Gerontological Data of C57BL/6J Mice. I. Sex Differences in Survival Curves

Abstract: A group of 1,052 C57BL/6J mice (296 males and 756 females) was kept under well-defined, clean laboratory conditions from the age of 6 weeks until natural death. The survival curves of males and females (computer-produced 3, 4, and 5 parameter curves, Gompertz curve histogram) were established and shown to follow a logistic function. The average life-span amounted to 878 plus or minus 10 days for males and 794 plus or minus 6 days for females. These values distinctly exceed comparable values given in the literature. They are attributed to favorable conditions of animal care and to supposed alterations in genetic background. A genetic drift in sex-dependent mean survival time occurred in the genetically unstable C57BL/6J strain between 1966 and 1970. Before this drift, the males died sooner; after it, they lived longer.

A retesting and modification of the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale.

Abstract: The inter-item structuring of the questions in the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale was analyzed for sample members of two studies being conducted by the Dept. of Social Gerontological Research of The Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for Aged (Boston) in an attempt to understand better the several components of the PGC battery first reported by Lawton. PGC items were subjected to principal component and Varimax factor analyses for both the original 22 items and also a reduced 17-item battery. In addition, using more recent findings of Lawton, further structural tests were performed in order to obtain the best possible configuration of items for the several reliable scale components found. The results of these cross SAMPLE ANALYSES INDICATE AN OVER-ALL LEVEL OF RELIABILITY FOR THREE OF THE ORIGINAL PGC components; and at the same time, indices of greater length and reliability resulted when these three PGC components were slightly restructured.

Aerobic power of females, ages 10 to 68.

Abstract: This study was designed to determine how aging and individual activity patterns affect females' response to maximal exercise. Two treadmill tests for maximal aerobic power (Vo2 max) were administered to 109 females, ages 10 to 68. Subjects were classified as above or below age group means for Vo2 max reported for Scandinavian and Canadian females. Aging effects on cardiovascular and respiratory variables were minimal within each group until age 50, although there was a significant linear decrement in Vo2 max (L/min) with increasing age for the low fitness group. VE max, oxygen debt, postexercise blood lactate, vital capacity, and maximal breathing capacity were also lower for these women. Aging patterns were similar for both groups for Vo2 max ml/kg times min- minus 1 and ml/kg (LBM) times min- minus 1. Responses to an Activity Questionnaire suggested that habitual levels of activity rather than age per se determines levels of Vo2 max for women in the 20-49 age range.

Anticipatory grief and aged widows and widowers.

Abstract: The purpose of this investigation was to explore the preventive value of anticipatory grief on the medical adjustment of the aged bereaved. Data were collected for 81 surviving widows and widowers 6 mo. after their loss. Sixteen of the bereaved had spouses who died of a chronic illness. These two groups were compared on three criteria of medical adjustment: physician office visits, feeling ill without contacting a physician, and use of psychotropic medications. The data indicated that the aged bereaved of a lengthy chronic fatal illness did worse than the bereaved of a shorter chronic illness death. By sex, no significant differences were found between widows and widowers of a short-term illness death. However, differences were noted for the chronic illness category, and within this category for length of chronicity. In both cases widowers showed more medical problems than widows.

Age Differences in the Speed of a Spatial Cognitive Process

Abstract: Older subjects responded slower than younger subjects on a spatial task which required them to rotate mentally a perspectively drawn figure in order to judge whether it was congruent with a second figure. Decision time was partitioned into two components: (1) the time taken for the "mental rotation" process, (2) the time taken for the remaining processes such as stimulus encoding and motor output. Both components required more time in the elderly group. The increase with age in the component of decision time representing rotational processes was similar to those increases seen by other investigators examining age-dependent differences in time required for memory-scanning processes using verbal stimuli.

Assessment of biological age by multiple regression analysis

Abstract: In order to generate a reference value of aging, estimation of chronological age of healthy subjects was made by multiple regression analysis. It was shown that the estimated ages of hypertensive subjects by the formula used were significantly higher than their chronological ages. It was further observed that parameters representing various ability of movements might yield an alternative regression formula and that the accuracy in age estimation was improved with application of a second-order regression formula.

A life-span look at person perception and its relationship to communicative interaction.

Abstract: Two experiments were conducted in order to discover (a) the expressed attitudes of young adults about the intellectual abilities of seven target groups ranging in age from infant to elderly, and (b) if and in what manner young adults differentially explain the rules of a simple game to these same target groups. In Experiment I, questionnaires requiring the attribution of intellectual capabilities of infants, preschoolers, preadolescents, adolescents, and young and middle-aged, and elderly adults were completed by 243 subjects. Intellectual ability was seen as increasing with age until old age. The elderly were consistently perceived as less competent than both young and middle-aged adults. The result of Experiment II, in which 60 subjects participated, suggested that young adults modify the complexity of their communications to different aged listeners in accordance with their expressed perceptions of the intellectual attributes of their auditors.

Age and Fearfulness: Personal and Situational Factors

Abstract: Recent research in the quality of life has identified a sense of security as a significant component. Taking its negative, fear, the personal and structural factors associated with fear of walking around one's neighborhood were assessed in a secondary analysis using data from a 1973 representative national sample collected from the National Opinion Research Center. Although the direct effect of age on fear was minimal, clear and significant age differentials on fear were found by income, size of city of residence, and the presence or absence of others in the household.

Comparison of speech and swallowing function in patients with tremor disorders and in normal geriatric patients: a cinefluorographic study.

Abstract: In a study of vocal tract and esophageal function during speech and swallowing, unmedicated Parkinson patients were found to have specific disorders in oral and esophageal stages of deglutition and a predictable sequence of deterioration in speech. To determine whether these disorders are exclusive to parkinsonism or are typical of all patients with tremor or of geriatric patients in general, a cinefluoroscopic study was initiated to examine the physiology of speech and swallowing in these other patients. Subjects were 10 normal geriatric patients and 10 patients with essential tremor. Results of the studies for these two groups were compared with data from earlier studies on unmedicated Parkinson patients. Parkinson patients showed most severely disordered swallowing and speech function. Patients with essential tremor showed only slight slowing in esophageal transit during swallowing and vocal tremor during speech, but no progressive deterioration. Normal geriatric patients revealed no swallowing or speech disturbances.

Normal Function of Transplanted Marrow Cell Lines from Aged Mice

Abstract: Transplantation experiments indicated that losses with age in erythrocyte production were not intrinsically timed within marrow cell lines. In most cases marrow cell lines from old donors functioned as well as those from young donors after transplantation into either W/W-v anemic or lethally irradiated normal recipients. After normal marrow cells had been serially transplanted into successive W/W-v mice 5 times, both old and young cell lines began to fail; the old cell lines had produced erythrocytes normally for 77 to 84 mo. Transplanted old and young control marrow cell lines, identified by T6 chromosomes, saved the lives of lethally irradiated recipients; the oldest cell lines functioned normally for 54 mo. The hypothesis is suggested that senescence of an organism is caused by intrinsically timed functional declines in only a few vital cell types. In transplantation experiments to identify these cell types, four criteria--function, identification, control, and health--should be met. The marrow transplantation experiments led to and illustrate the hypothesis and the four criteria.

Human growth hormone and cortisol response to insulin stimulation in aging.

Abstract: The influence of age on plasma growth hormone (HGH) and cortisol response to i.v. insulin (0.1 U/kg of body weight) was evaluated in 32 healthy subjects whose ages ranged between 20 and 84 years. A significant reduction in HGH response to insulin was observed with aging. In the young (20-34 years), middel-aged (35-49 years), and elderly (53-84 years) groups, average HGH peaks were 46.51 +/- 7.37, 29.95 +/- 5.35, and 14.31 +/- 2.39 ng/ml while average HGH areas were 2.911 +/- 0.484, 1.654 +/- 0.316, and 0.699 +/- 0.149 mug-min, respectively. Since insulin's hypoglycemic effect became less rapid with aging, this could, in part, explain the progressive decline in the HGH response to insulin. This phenomen may also be attributed to histological changes occurring in the pituitary with aging. Moreover, cortisol response was similar to all three age groups. These findings suggest that, while HGH response to insulin is correlated with age, adrenal response does not show any important modifications with aging.

A Multi-Dimensional, Multiple Method Analysis of Attitudes Toward the Elderly

Abstract: An attitude questionnaire was employed to assess youths' attitudes toward a "representative" 25-year-old and a "representative" 70-year-old along various dimensions, which resulted in their rating the elderly in a more negative fashion. A sample of these subjects judged specific target persons on the basis of autobiographical sketches which were equated for social desirability value but differed with respect to age of target (either 25 or 70 years old). On this measure college students judged the 70-year-old more favorably than the 25-year-old. A comparison of prejudicial responding among the various attitude dimensions and across differing measurement methods was made.

Voluntary association participation and life satisfaction: a replication note.

Abstract: The results of a replication study carried out in Kansas City in 1973 are compared with the original study in Oberlin, Ohio, in 1970 to see if the relationship between participation in voluntary associations and life satisfaction of the aged holds up over time and in a different geographic region. In a confirmation of the original study, the data indicate that health and status characteristics are more potent predictors of life satisfaction than participation in voluntary associations, which shows a nonsignificant relationship to life satisfaction when controlling for the effects of health and status.

A fine structural study of degenerative changes in the dorsal column nuclei of aging mice. Lack of protection by vitamin E.

Abstract: The dorsal column nuclei of young, old, and vitamin E-supplemented old mice were examined by light and electron microscopy. Evidence of neuroaxonal dystrophy (NAD) was found in young (3-mo.-old) mice and increased with age. Vitamin E, added to the diet in the amount of 0.3%, did not protect the nuclei from age-associated degeneration. The NAD was characterized by enlarged profiles containing patches of smooth reticular networks and groups of vesicles. Various stages of mitochondrial alteration, producing multivesicular bodies as intermediate stages, were found, and other unusual forms of dense bodies were also observed. Axons, synaptic terminals, and possibly glial cells were affected, and, by 23 mo. of age, a large number of nerve fibers in nucleus gracilis were dystrophic, while nucleus cuneatus was affected to a lesser extent.

Mood as an Indicant of Happiness: Age, Sex, Social Class, and Situational Differences

Abstract: Does mood vary as a function of age, sec, or situation? In four investigations, 6,452 persons aged 4 to 99 were interrupted at leisure, at home, at school, and at work and asked to assess their mood as being happy, neutral, or unhappy. Moods of happiness and neutrality were each reported about 45% and unhappiness about 10% of the time. Females more frequently reported moods of happiness or unhappiness than males, while mood did not vary as a function of age. Persons at leisure reported more affectively pleasant moods than those at work, at home, or at school. Persons of higher socioeconomic status reported more happy moods than those of lower status. In another study, a class of 255 students was administered various personality scales and then interrupted 21 times over the course of the quarter and their mood indexed. Tested religiosity negatively correlated with frequency of pleasant moods, the Barron Ego-Strength Scale was uncorrelated with frequency of kind of mood, and the Eysenck Neuroticism Scale correlated with frequency of unpleasant moods.

Modernization, Modernity, and Perceptions of Aging: A Cross-Cultural Study

Abstract: Data from a comparative study of 5,450 young males in six developing nations were used to investigate the association between modernization or modernity and negative attitudes toward aging. The findings question the frequent assertion that "modernity" (the exposure of individuals in developing nations to industrial technology and urban social experience) results in negative perceptions of aging and diminished value attributed to the aged. The data do provide support for the hypothesis that "modernization" (societal development) is related to negative perceptions of aging. Results suggest the necessity of differentiating between "modernization" and "modernity" as levels of analysis and of avoiding value-laden assumptions concerning advantages of either traditional or industrial social settings with respect to the position of elders.

Age differences in backward monoptic visual noise masking.

Abstract: An investigation of age differences in backward monoptic visual noise masking was carried out with young and old adult subjects. It was found that the older subjects were susceptible to the backward masking effect over significantly longer delays between the target and masking stimulus. The masking effect seems to be, at least in part, attributable to age changes in the central mechanisms concerned with perceptual processing which limit the rate at which stimuli can be "cleared" through the nervous system. Backward masking studies of different types seem to hold considerable promise for assessment of the peripheral and central components of age change in visual perceptual processing.

Similarities and differences between psychological deficit in aging and brain damage.

Abstract: This study compared education matched young brain-damaged, young nonbrain-damaged, old brain-damaged and old nonbrain-damaged groups on a battery of measures of cognitive, perceptual, and motor skills. By means of a factor analysis, the 26 original measures were reduced to four, called nonverbal memory, language ability, motor ability, and psychomotor problem solving. Factor scores were obtained for each of these measures and were subjected to a linear discriminant analysis; 48.3% of the cases were correctly classified. Plotting of the canonical variable suggested that the first discriminant function separated the young nonbrain-damaged group from the others, but did not discriminate well otherwise. The second discriminant function was noncontributory. Multi-variate analysis of variance produced significant main effects for the "age" and "brain damage" factors, but the interaction term was nonsignificant. Inspection of the cell means indicated that the four measures interacted differentially with age.

Dementia in the elderly--a search for treatable illnesses.

Abstract: Forty patients with senile dementia were evaluated prospectively with laboratory and radiologic investigations, including computerized axial transverse tomography. Five patients were believed to have potentially treatable illnesses causing the dementia. After treatment, the dementia in one patient with hypothyroidism was completely resolved. One patient with pernicious anemia was markedly improved, and a second patient with hypothyroidism was somewhat improved. One patient with a brain tumor was not treated, and a severely demented patient with possible normal pressure hydrocephalus died shortly after shunting without improvement. The discovery of these unsuspected illnesses and the gratifying response to treatment in some suggests the importance of systematic evaluation in all patients with senile dementia.

Mid-life temperature-transfer effects on life-span of annual fish.

Abstract: When annual fish are transferred from 20 C. to 15 C. at slightly less than the midpoint of lifespan of those kept throughout life at 20 C., the survival of the transferees exceeds theoretical expectations. They live longer than those maintained throughout life at 15 C., which had previously manifested the longest survival. These results indicate that the influence of temperature on life-span is not uniform throughout the life of a poikilothermic vertebrate. The phenomenon of partial temperature-independency had been previously demonstrated in invertebrates.

Fluid and crystallized intelligence in young adulthood and old age.

Abstract: The theory of fluid and crystallized intelligence predicts that the relationship between these two abilities will decline systematically across the age span after young adulthood. In order to test this hypothesis in an elderly sample, the Raven Progressive Martices and the WAIS vocabulary subtest were administered to a sample of individuals (N=40), ranging in age from 60 to 79, and also, for purposes of comparison, to a sample of young adults (N=35). It was found that the correlation was significantly lower in the elderly sample (.386) than in the young adult sample (.672).

Housing Characteristics and the Well-Being of Elderly Tenants in Federally Assisted Housing.

Abstract: The relationship between sponsorship, community size, building size (number of dwelling units) and height of building, on the one hand, and six indices of well-being of elderly tenants, on the other, was examined in a study of 2457 subjects from 154 federally-assisted housing projects. Control was exercised on a variety of personal variables prior to the examination of the environmental relationships to well-being. Private nonprofit sponsorship was associated with higher friendship scores and greater activity participation. Tenants in smaller communities had higher friendship scores, greater housing satisfaction, and greater activity participation. Housing satisfaction was greater in projects that were smaller in terms of total number of units but was not related to size when size was defined in terms of elderly-designated units. Thus, only marginal support for Barker's undermanning hypothesis was found. Greater height of building was associated with lower housing satisfaction and less neighborhood motility. Language: en

Runwheel activity patterns of mature-young and senescent mice: the effect of constant lighting conditions.

Abstract: A group of 18 5-mo.-old young and a group of 16 27-mo.-old senescent mice of the C57BL/6J strain were adapted for wheel-running under standard LD 12 : 12 cyclic illumination, after which each group was divided into three subgroups. One old and one young subgroup remained in standard lighting conditions as controls, while the two experimental subgroups received constant light followed by constant dark or constant dark followed by constant light. Rhythmic runwheel activity patterns were compared using periodicity, activity-rest ratios, and amplitude as parameters (defined in text). As expected, senescent mice were less active than young mice, although they did not always spend less time in activity than did the young. Generally, young mice were more reactive to the initial experimental conditions than were the senescent mice, whereas the reverse was observed in the final experimental conditions.

Response of institutionalized geriatric mental patients to a twelve-week program of regular physical activity.

Abstract: Twenty-three geriatric patients from a mental institution were randomly assigned to three groups-a social group, an exercise group, and a control group. Subjects participated in the study for 12 weeks. Heart rate at rest, exercise and recovery, balancing ability, total daily activity level (diary method), and a self-care inventory were recorded for analysis. Data were collected at the start, the 8th and 12th weeks of the study, and 4 weeks after the termination of treatment. A Groups X Sex X Measurement Period factorial design, using multivariate analysis of variance tested the effect of the three factors. The trials effect was significant, as were several univariate tests for the sex effect and group by sex interaction. Data were discussed in terms of programmed physical activity for geriatrics, its value, and the limitations of evaluating such behavior in geriatric populations. Language: en