Showing papers in "Journal of Gerontology in 1986"

Somesthetic Sensitivity in Young and Elderly Humans

Abstract: Absolute thresholds were measured on 27 young (ages 19 to 31) and 21 elderly (ages 55 to 84) humans to six modes of cutaneous stimulation (single ramp-and-hold skin indentations--tactile, vibration at 40 and 250 Hz, temperature increases and decreases, and noxious heat) at two sites, the thenar eminence and the plantar foot. Comparisons of the elderly and young groups showed that elderly persons were significantly, p less than or equal to .001, less sensitive than young individuals to mechanical stimuli (tactile and vibration) at both sites. No significant differences were found in thresholds to thermal stimuli (warm-, cold-, and heat-pain) at either site except elderly feet were significantly, p less than or equal to .001, less sensitive than young feet to warm stimuli. Thresholds of elderly individuals were compared with the young group thresholds for deficits in sensitivity. All elderly participants showed deficits to one or more of the stimulus modes at one or the other site. There were significantly, p less than or equal to 0.01, more deficits to mechanical than to thermal stimuli. There was no increase in the frequency of deficits with increasing age.

Symptoms of mental impairment among elderly adults and their effects on family caregivers.

Abstract: Research that has examined the relationship between caregiving stress and elders' symptoms of mental impairment has focused primarily on cognitive incapacity. This research expands the symptoms of mental impairment to include caregivers' reports of problems in elders' social functioning and the presence of disruptive behavior, in addition to the traditional measure of cognitive incapacity. Results from a study of 614 families living with and caring for an impaired elder show cognitive incapacity to have a less important direct effect on caregiving stress than disruptive behavior and impaired social functioning. Cognitive incapacity does have an important indirect effect through its influence on disruptive behavior and social functioning.

Social support, stress, and well-being among older adults

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine whether social support buffers the deleterious effects of stressful life events on depressive symptoms among a random community sample of older adults. Previous research has provided contradictory conclusions regarding the stress buffering capacity of supportive social relations. The reason for these inconclusive findings may be traced in part to the failure of researchers to disaggregate their social support and stressful life event inventories. The findings from the present study reveal that, although social support fails to modify the effects of a global stressful life events indicator, specific types of social support buffer the impact of specific types of stressors (bereavement, crime, and social network crises).

Self-reported physical health among aged adults.

Abstract: A multiple indicator structural equation model is proposed to delineate the various aspects of self-reported physical health. In particular, it specifies structural linkages among five measures of health including chronic illness, number of sick days, physical self-maintenance, instrumental activities of daily living, and subjective rating of one's own health. The proposed model is evaluated by using data from the 1968 National Senior Citizens Survey. The results support the predictions derived from the proposed model and are consistently replicated across four randomly divided subsamples.

Subjective Memory Assessment and Test Performance in Elderly Adults

Abstract: The everyday memory of a group of elderly adults was assessed using techniques developed for use with younger head-injured people (Sunderland et al., 1983). The participants completed a memory questionnaire and a daily checklist; their spouses gave their assessment using a separate questionnaire. These subjective methods showed only moderate agreement, and the questionnaire had low test-retest reliability. It appears that these methods of subjective memory assessment have little validity when used with normal elderly adults. Two positive findings did emerge: As in previous studies, a story recall test was the strongest predictor of reported memory performance; and despite a universal belief among elderly adults that their memory had deteriorated with age, very few of them felt that they were at all handicapped by forgetfulness in everyday life.

The life-cycle research productivity of mathematicians and scientists.

Abstract: Declining research productivity with age is implied by economic models of life-cycle human capital investment but is denied by some recent empirical studies. The purpose of the present study is to provide new evidence on whether a scientist's output generally declines with advancing age. A longitudinal data set has been compiled for scientists and mathematicians at six major departments, including data on age, salaries, annual citations (stock of human capital), citations to current output (flow of human capital), and quantity of current output measured both in number of articles and in number of pages. Analysis of the data indicates that salaries peak from the early to mid-60s, whereas annual citations appear to peak from age 39 to 89 for different departments with a mean age of 59 for the 6 departments. The quantity and quality of current research output appear to decline continuously with age.

Motor performance of women as a function of age and physical activity level.

Abstract: In Study 1, simple and choice reaction time, balance, sit and reach flexibility, shoulder flexibility, and grip strength of older active women were compared with older inactive women, and active and inactive younger women. Except for grip strength, scores of older active women on all measures were significantly better than for older inactive women, and much more like those of the younger women. In Study 2, scores of avid women golfers were compared with the older active and inactive women from Study 1. On all variables, the scores of golfers were significantly better than those of the older inactive women, but not significantly different from the older active women. Findings were consistent with previous research on men, indicating that motor performance tends to be more highly related to lifelong physical activity level than to age.

Taste and Aging

Abstract: Taste thresholds are known to rise with age, but the status of suprathreshold sensations is less clear. The present study assessed the perceived intensities of sodium chloride, sucrose, citric acid, and quinine hydrochloride with the method of magnitude matching. This method takes advantage of participants' ability to judge sensations from two sensory continua (in this case taste intensity and loudness) on a common intensity scale, in effect, matching them. Elderly and young adults matched most of the moderate and strong tastes to the same loudnesses. If the sounds were equivalently loud to elderly and young adults, then these results would mean that moderate and strong tastes were also equivalently strong, that is, taste sensation had not faded for our elderly adults. Water and dilute taste solutions were matched to louder sounds by elderly than young participants. This may reflect the presence of a mild dysgeusia (background taste).

Improving visual perception in older observers.

Abstract: Younger observers (M = 21 years) proved to be better than older observers (M = 68 years) at discriminating one direction of motion from another, highly similar one. Several days' practice steadily improved performance for both groups equally. Improvement was well restricted to the direction with which that observer practiced, and the full gains were retained for at least 1 month. Control measurements with various degrees of optical blur demonstrate that direction discrimination does not require a well-focussed retinal image. This rules out optical factors as the potential cause of the prepractice differences between groups.

The generation effect and reality monitoring: evidence from dementia and normal aging.

Abstract: The role of semantic memory activation in accounting for generation effects and reality monitoring was investigated in young and old normal adults and in patients with dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT). Both young and old normal adults demonstrated higher recall for internally generated information than for externally presented information, whereas the DAT patients failed to demonstrate a generation effect. Similarly, reality monitoring scores (discrimination between internal and external items) were high for both age groups of normals, but near chance levels for the DAT group. These results implicate semantic memory as an important factor in generation effects.

Age Differences in Plasma Norepinephrine Kinetics in Humans

Abstract: To determine if the increased plasma norepinephrine (NE) of older individuals is due to greater plasma NE appearance rate and/or decreased NE clearance, arterialized plasma NE kinetics were measured in 25 healthy young (27 +/- 6 yr, M +/- SD) and 18 healthy older volunteers (68 +/- 5 yr) using a tritium-labeled NE isotope dilution technique. Basal NE levels were 54% greater in the older participants (282 +/- 24 vs. 183 +/- 11 pg/ml, M +/- SEM, p less than .001). The mean plasma NE appearance rate was 32% higher (0.33 +/- 0.03 vs. 0.25 +/- 0.02 microgram/m2/min, p less than .016) and NE clearance was 19% lower (1.21 +/- 0.08 vs. 1.49 +/- 0.06 L/min/m2, p less than .006) in the older participants. There was a close correlation between NE appearance rate and NE levels (r = .76, p less than .001, N = 43), but only modest inverse correlation between NE clearance and NE levels (r = -.37, p less than .01, N = 43). Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis revealed that NE appearance rate and clearance explained 80% of the variance in NE levels and that 57% of the variance was attributable to NE appearance, F (1,41) = 54.8, p less than .001, compared with only 14% by NE clearance, F (1, 41) = 6.5, p = .01. We conclude that the principal factor accounting for the higher plasma NE levels of older individuals is an increase in plasma NE appearance rate.

Effect of Age on the Circadian Pattern of Sleep and Wakefulness in the Mouse

Abstract: In elderly humans, daytime naps are common, nocturnal sleep is poorly consolidated, and the sleep period often begins and ends earlier than in young adults. Because previous work has suggested that rodents may provide a useful animal model for these changes, we conducted a detailed investigation of sleep patterns in 11 young adult and 9 old mice. Mice were surgically implanted for chronic EEG recording, and sleep state was monitored over multiple circadian cycles. During the active phase, old mice spent more time asleep and had shorter wake episodes compared with young mice. During the rest phase, old mice spent more time awake than young mice, and tended to have shorter episodes of sleep. No evidence was found, however, for earlier timing of sleep in older mice. These results suggest that the mouse may provide a suitable animal model for further study of certain age-related changes in temporal distribution of sleep and wakefulness.

The effects of age and extended practice on divided attention performance.

Abstract: The present study examined the effects of repeated practice on the divided attention performance of young and old adults. Six young and 6 older adults performed two perceptual-motor tasks under both single- and dual-task conditions across six 1-hr sessions. Absolute levels of performance improved reliably over sessions for both young and old participants, but divided attention performance remained poorer in old than in young adults. Relative divided attention costs (Somberg & Salthouse, 1982) were consistently higher for the older adults across experimental sessions. These results confirm previous suggestions that older people are particularly vulnerable to the effects of divided attention. The findings are discussed further in terms of the validity of single-session studies of age differences in divided attention performance.

Self-Rated Health and Associated Factors Among Men of Different Ages

Abstract: The connections of certain clinico-physiological indicators of health state, chronic diseases, felt symptoms, and psychic well-being with self-rated health were studied among men of different ages as a part of the more extensive research project Jyvaskyla Studies on Functional Aging. Study population was selected by using systematic random sampling among men aged 31 to 35, 51 to 55 and 71 to 75 years in the city of Jyvaskyla. Log-linear and logit models as well as regression and structural equation models within the framework of LISREL were used as methods of analysis. The associations between general self-rated health and the explanative variables were different in different age groups: In the youngest age group self-rated health was best explained by symptoms and index of physical fitness; among the middle-aged by symptoms and psychic well-being; and among the oldest by chronic diseases. The results suggest that self-rated health belongs to the important indicators of health, and more attention should be paid to it both in research and in medical practice.

Effects of Age on Pain Perception: Thermonociception

Abstract: The effect of age on pain sensitivity is unclear. Some studies suggest a loss of pain perception with age, whereas other studies indicate either no change or an increase in pain sensitivity with age. The present study assessed perceived intensities of six levels of painful contact thermal stimuli (43 degrees C, 45 degrees C, 47 degrees C, 48 degrees C, 49 degrees C, and 51 degrees C). Magnitude estimation procedures were used, and participants were instructed to provide separate ratings for the perceived sensory intensity and the perceived unpleasantness (affective intensity) of the thermal stimuli during separate sessions. Middle-age adults showed the lowest sensory sensitivity and greatest affective pain ratings. Although results indicate a significant but small tendency for older adults to underrate low and overrate higher intensity contact heat compared with younger adults, similarities in pain perception were stronger than differences among the age groups.

Client-Related Risk Factors of Nursing Home Entry Among Elderly Adults

Abstract: We estimated the relative importance of various client characteristics related to nursing home entry for a national probability sample of Medicare recipients and developed predictive models of nursing home entry that account for the interactive effects among variables. In contrast with previous research, we focused on the characteristics of nursing home entrants, not residents. By using a national sample we ensured that the influence of regional variations in the configuration of long-term care services would not confound estimates of the relative effect of client-related factors. Nine variables emerged as statistically significant predictors: age, being confined to a bed, requiring help to get around, requiring aid getting around, being widowed, never married, welfare as a payment source, insurance as a payment source, and perceived health status. When these factors were controlled for, sex, geographic region, and educational status were not statistically significant.

Aged blacks' choices for an informal helper network.

Abstract: Research on the support networks of impaired elderly adults suggests that membership in sociodemographic subgroups influences use of specific informal helpers. This study explored the relationships of sociodemographic, health, and family factors to informal helper choice among a nationally representative sample (N = 581) of older (55 years and above) blacks (National Survey of Black Americans). Nine categories of helpers were examined: spouse, son, daughter, father, mother, brother, sister, friend, and neighbor. Logistic regression analyses revealed that marital status is important in selecting the categories of sister, friend, and neighbor. Presence of children decreased the likelihood that siblings and friends would be chosen. Perceived family closeness facilitated the selection of siblings but inhibited the choice of friends. Regional differences suggest a greater likelihood of selecting the categories of sister, friend, and neighbor among Southern residents.

Taste intensity perception in aging.

Abstract: Men (n = 91) and women (n = 79) between the ages of 23 and 88 years made cross-modal matches of distance to the perceived intensity of aqueous solutions representing the four basic taste qualities. Traditional analysis, which characterizes age-group performance in terms of the slope of a group's psychophysical function, yielded results consistent with previous findings in that some flattening of slope was observed in the oldest group. Analyses based on the slope of the functions generated by individual participants demonstrated significant regression on age for some qualities. None of these findings were observed in the analogous analysis of variance (ANOVA). Significant age-related changes in Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) were demonstrated by both ANOVA and regression analysis. The ICC reflects the consistency of an individual's discriminative response over repeated stimulus presentations. Its variation with age was dependent upon taste quality.

Sources of helping and intergenerational solidarity: a three-generations study of Mexican Americans.

Abstract: Sources of help and advice (other than one's spouse) and degree of intergenerational solidarity were investigated in a three-generation sample of Mexican Americans. It was found that elderly Mexican Americans are involved in strong helping networks with their children who rely a great deal on them for advice and help. In all three generations, there is a predominance of family as sources of support. Women are relied on for help regarding health matters and men regarding home repairs and upkeep. Help and advice regarding financial problems and personal problems fall primarily along same-sex lines. Scales measuring intergenerational solidarity, showed that all-female dyads have greater associational solidarity than all-male and cross-sex dyads. Few differences appear in affectual solidarity which was uniformly high. Finally, there appears to be minimum association and intergenerational helping between grandparents and grandchildren.

Old age stereotypes: reconciling contradictions.

Abstract: This study tested the hypothesis that age stereotyping with specific targets would occur when targets were disabled, when information was minimal, when the context was commonplace, and when the measuring instruments were psychometrically sound. In addition, greater compatibility was anticipated between specific and generalized target evaluations when rating scales were anchored to a fixed comparison point. Using between-subject designs, 208 students completed two judgment tasks and reported on the impact that age had on their evaluations. The traditional stereotyping paradigm revealed both positive and negative stereotypes of old age when the target was generalized but not when the target was specific. The qualitative data are used to suggest shortcomings in the use of the traditional stereotyping paradigm with specific targets.

Intergenerational solidarity: an examination of a theoretical model.

Abstract: This study provided an empirical test of a widely cited proposed model of intergenerational solidarity. The model emphasizes that association, affect, and consensus are interdependent dimensions of solidarity and offers an explanatory rationale for parent-child solidarity. Path analysis techniques were used with a sample of 279 older rural-transitional parents. The results showed little support for the model, but the data indicated that residential propinquity and mutual helping behavior were strong predictors of intergenerational association. The importance of the indirect effect of sex linkage via mutual help to associational solidarity also received strong support. The results showed that the proposed model was useful in explaining objective solidarity (association) but not subjective solidarity (consensus and affection) and that these variables were not dimensions of one construct.

The Effect of Touch on Nutritional Intake of Chronic Organic Brain Syndrome Patients

Abstract: Inadequate nutrition, a major cause of illness and complications among elderly adults, is of particular import for those who cannot provide for themselves. We evaluated the effect of gentle touch during eating on nutritional intake (NI) of 42 institutionalized chronic organic brain syndrome (COBS) patients. Patients were randomly assigned to experimental or control groups. NI was evaluated for 3 consecutive weeks. During Weeks 1 and 3 all patients were encouraged verbally to eat. In the treatment week experimental group members were touched gently during this verbal encouragement. Repeated measures analyses of variance were used to evaluate the effect of touch on NI. In the first week NI for the groups did not differ. NI was significantly greater in the experimental than in the control group (p less than .01) during the other 2 weeks. Tactile stimulation, a simple intervention, may be an important adjunct to verbal encouragement to improve NI in COBS patients.

Aging and the time course of semantic activation.

Abstract: Fifty-four young (M age = 20.2 years) and 54 elderly participants (M age = 68.4 years) completed a task in which a prime was followed by a target. People were to respond "yes" if the target was a word and "no" otherwise. On word-target trials, three kinds of prime were presented: associated (e.g., the prime-target pair DOG-CAT), unassociated (e.g., SEW-CAT), and neutral (e.g., BLANK-CAT). The stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between onset of the prime and target was varied, with SOAs of 150, 450, and 1,000 ms. The most important finding was an age difference in the minimum SOA at which priming (i.e., faster response time on associated than on unassociated trials) was observed. It is argued that the age difference in onset of priming reflects a slowing with age in one or more aspects of semantic activation. Contrary to the Hasher and Zacks (1979) hypothesis, there is evidence of an age difference in the speed of automatic activation.

Well-being scales do not measure social desirability.

Abstract: To examine the contention that well-being scales are contaminated by socially desirable responding, three well-being measures were correlated with peer ratings of neuroticism before and after controlling for Edwards' social desirability in a sample of 62 adult men and women. Because social desirability was correlated with rated neuroticism, "correcting" for social desirability bias decreased, rather than increased, the validity of well-being measures as judged against an external criterion. Findings support the position that self-reports of well-being can generally be taken as veridical assessments.

Some Anthropometric Indices of Body Composition for Elderly Adults

Abstract: Weight divided by stature squared (W/S2) was computed from weight and stature, and midarm muscle area (MAMA) was computed from recumbent measures of midarm circumference and triceps skinfolds in a sample of 119 elderly white men and 150 elderly white women. Sex-specific means, standard deviations, and percentiles for W/S2 and MAMA are presented at 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, and 90 years of age. Women had significantly larger mean values for W/S2 at 90 years, but the men had significantly larger W/S2 values at 65 years and for MAMA values at all ages. The formula for MAMA was used because there is no systematic difference between values for corresponding standing and recumbent measurements. Weight divided by stature squared and MAMA are indirect indices of the degree of obesity and leanness, both of which are important health problems in elderly adults.

Stress and sex differences in depressive symptoms among older adults.

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to determine whether elderly women experience more symptoms associated with depression than elderly men and, if such sex differences exist, to examine several factors that might account for the greater preponderance of psychological distress among women. Unlike previous studies of elderly adults, this study attempted to explain sex differences in depression in terms of differential-exposure and differential-vulnerability to the effects of life stress. The results from a random community survey of 351 older adults indicate that women are more depressed than men. Moreover, a series of demographic-mean decomposition analyses suggest that greater vulnerability among women to the effects of chronic life strains explains a substantial portion of the observed sex differences in distress. Stressful life events were found to be a less important factor in this process.

Past and future life expectancy increases at later ages: their implications for the linkage of chronic morbidity, disability, and mortality.

Abstract: Recently life expectancy increases have been noted at advanced ages in the United States. This means a more rapid growth of the elderly U.S. population in general and of the oldest-old population in particular. Thus it is of considerable social and health policy interest to forecast (a) the direction and magnitude of future changes in life expectancy at later ages and (b) the changes in the prevalence of health and disability at later ages consequent to the increases in life expectancy. In the analysis several prior efforts to predict life expectancy changes using standard demographic techniques are reviewed and reasons for the limitations of such efforts suggested. The "results show that mortality changes at advanced ages have very different relations to risk factors than at earlier ages. The analysis also shows that linking morbidity disability and mortality in a complete projection of population health changes will require the extension of standard demographic methodologies to utilize information from multiple data sources." (EXCERPT)

Priming in episodic memory.

Abstract: Young and old adults studied related and unrelated word pairs and were given both cued recall and recognition tests. The recognition test required speeded responses to single words. The test order was constructed so that half of the B items from each A-B pair were preceded by its paired A item whereas the other half of the B items were preceded by some other old item. Priming was measured as the difference in reaction time between these two types of items. Significant age differences were found in both recall and recognition accuracy, but young and old adults showed equal amounts of priming. There were significant main effects of relatedness on all three dependent measures, but only in cued recall was there a larger age deficit for unrelated items. The results are inconsistent with an age-related deficit for integrating pairs of words at encoding and suggest, instead, an impairment of effortful retrieval processes.

Equity Considerations in the Friendships of Older Adults

Abstract: This study examined patterns of exchange between 110 older adults and their friends. Using equity theory as the conceptual base, the amount and type of distress reported in the overall friend relationship, the helping aspect of the friendship, and the affective component of the relationship by those individuals in equitable versus inequitable friendships were examined. The results support the postulate of equity theory that individuals who perceived their relationship to be equitable express less distress with all aspects of their friendships than those who perceived their friendships as inequitable. The type of distress reported by respondents in the inequitable group, however, was contrary to the propositions of equity theory.

Geriatric Rehabilitation Unit: a 3-year outcome evaluation.

Abstract: One-hundred-ninety elderly (mean age 75.8 years), disabled patients at risk of being institutionalized due to stroke, acute medical problems, dementia, and other illnesses completed a rehabilitation program at the Geriatric Rehabilitation Unit (GRU). A retrospective study to measure possible impacts of rehabilitation on functional status and placement at discharge from the GRU and on living situation 1 year postdischarge showed an improvement of functional status after rehabilitation in nearly all patients. By discharge, the number of patients with partial or total activities of daily living (ADL) independence increased from 87 to 173, ambulatory patients increased from 42 to 127, continent patients from 89 to 141 and mentally clear patients from 40 to 91. Higher ratings in these parameters at discharge were associated with better placement and significantly lower mortality 1 year postdischarge. Patients placed in noninstitutional settings had a lower (21%) mortality rate when compared with patients placed in nursing homes (mortality 45%). The GRU program is clearly associated with improved outcome of care.