European Journal of Ageing最新文献

Earlier employment choices based on family events in earlier life have an impact up until late working life, especially in welfare regimes that encourage the breadwinner-caretaker division. We investigate types of late employment patterns and how these are associated with earlier family events. We also test whether the association between early family history and late working life varies across five welfare regimes. Using retrospective life history data from SHARELIFE, our sample consists of 10,913 women and 10,614 men aged 65 years and older. Late working life trajectories are analyzed using gender-separate sequence analyses, which are summarized into eight groups applying cluster analyses. Using average marginal and interaction effects, we explain how the association between types of late working life, coresidential partnership history and parenthood history differs by welfare states. For instance, women's late employment is either shaped by unpaid care or paid (full- or part-time) work but not both, whereas men's late working life is mainly shaped by full-time work. Family history in earlier life is linked to unpaid care and part-time work-an association strongest in liberal and southern welfare regimes. However, among men earlier family events are linked to full-time work. Policymakers need gender-specific strategies to integrate workers into late working life. The implementation of new policies should aim to prevent these social inequalities in early life, as employment decisions caused by family history in earlier life stages-especially for women-tend to cumulate over the life course.

This study investigates the relationships between subjective age, intrinsic capacity, functional ability and health among Norwegians aged 60 years and older. The Norwegian Survey of Health and Ageing (NORSE) is a population-based, cross-sectional study of home-dwelling individuals aged 60-96 years in the former county of Oppland. Age- and sex-adjusted regression models were used to investigate the gap between subjective and chronological age and this gap's association with self-reported and objectively measured intrinsic capacity (covering all six sub domains defined by WHO), health, and functional ability among 817 NORSE participants. The results show most participants felt younger than their chronological age (86.5%), while relatively few felt the same as their chronological age (8.3%) or older (5.2%). The mean subjective age was 13.8 years lower than mean chronological age. Participants with urinal incontinence, poor vision, or poor hearing felt 3.1 [95% confidence interval (CI) (0.6, 5.5)], 2.9 [95% CI (0.2, 5.6)], and 2.9 [95% CI (0.3, 5.5)] years older, respectively, than participants without those conditions, whereas none of the following factors-anxiety, depression, chronic disease, Short Physical Performance Battery score, grip strength, cognition, or frailty-significantly had an impact on the gap. In line with prior research, this study finds that feeling considerably younger than one's chronological age is common at older ages. However, those with poor hearing, poor vision, and urinal incontinence felt less young compared to those not having these conditions. These relationships may exert undesirable effects on vitality and autonomy, which are considered key factors of intrinsic capacity and healthy ageing.

In recent years, research on internet usage in old age and its associations with well-being outcomes has increased. However, the oldest-old age group (80 years and older) is frequently underrepresented, and autonomy and functional health are rarely considered in these studies. By applying moderation analyses with a representative dataset of the oldest-old in Germany (N = 1863), our study has analyzed the hypothesis that the autonomy of older individuals, in particular of those with limited functional health, can be enhanced by internet usage. The moderation analyses indicate that the positive association between internet usage and autonomy is greater for older individuals with lower functional health. This association remained significant after controlling for social support, housing situation, education, gender, and age. Explanations for these results are discussed, and imply that further research is needed to understand the relationships between internet usage, functional health, and autonomy.

How much information we retain depends on type/schedule of training. It has been widely acknowledged that spaced learning is advantageous compared to massed learning for cognitively healthy young adults and should be considered an educational standard. Literature would suggest that the spacing effect is preserved with age, though it is unclear whether this effect translates to more ecologically valid concepts such as face-name associations, which are particularly susceptible to deterioration with age. Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of spacing across recent/remote retention intervals, and the effect of age on spacing in cognitively healthy older adults using the Face-Name Pairs task. Experiment 1 results suggest that the beneficial memory effects of spacing are particularly observed with long-term memory. Experiment 2 results suggest that older adults are impaired at learning compared to younger adults, that the spacing effect influences both older and younger adults at longer intervals, and that spaced-trained participants display similar forgetting patterns at longer intervals, irrespective of age. These results may have some implications regarding improving the conditions under which optimum retention occurs (namely, whether spacing is beneficial when learning ecologically valid concepts at longer intervals outside of laboratory settings), and may provide insight into the effect of age on our ability to learn and remember face-name associations.

In line with current policies and service developments related to palliative care, more people are dying at home. This situation has provoked discussions about the importance of non-medical issues related to death. The process of dying is often long, with many phases, and the social aspect is a major part of it. Our focus in this article is on dying as a social process. Social relationships are significant and play a meaningful role in enhancing the well-being of older adults approaching the end of life. Meaningful social relationships tend to change over time; however, and the process of dying may exacerbate such changes in and challenge these relationships. The aim of our study was to examine how social relationships are experienced and (re)constructed among older adults (70-83 years old) during the process of dying, in a Finnish context. We were interested in the nature and type of these relationships, and in the possible new forms of expression that may emerge during this process. Our empirical data were based on interviews with seven older adults who were close to death. The analysis revealed processes of exclusion from existing relations. At the same time, we observed new and unexpected relations being initiated, which sometimes became meaningful and supportive. The results highlighted the role of expectations and importance of analysing exclusion from a life-course perspective.

This study examined the associations between childhood experiences and frailty trajectory among middle-aged and older Chinese adults. Data were derived from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. We used data from all four waves (i.e., 2011, 2013, 2015, 2018) and the life history survey in 2014. Data for 10,963 respondents were included. Latent growth curve models were conducted to examine the proposed model. The results show that adverse childhood experiences, self-rated childhood socioeconomic status, and the objective indicators of childhood health and health care were associated with both the baseline level and change rate of frailty. The educational attainment of fathers and perceived childhood health and healthcare conditions were associated with baseline frailty only. Our findings highlight the crucial role of childhood antecedents in the progression of frailty in later life. We further found strong evidence that childhood is an essential life stage for human development. Future social policies and interventions should use childhood experiences as a screening tool and promote child protection, health education, and life course interventions.

COVID-19 measures which reduce interpersonal contact may be effective in containing the transmission, but their impacts on peoples' well-being and daily lives overtime remain unclear. Older adults are more vulnerable to both the virus and social isolation. It is therefore imperative to understand how they were affected during this period. Major concerns arising from the pandemic cover the aspects of mental health, healthcare utilisation and individual behavioural changes. Complementing the existing before-and-after analyses, we explore the impacts of easing and re-introducing COVID-19 measures by using a time-series data in England. The data was collected between May and November 2020 from the monthly surveys of the Platform for Research Online to Investigate Genetics and Cognition in Aging (PROTECT). Chi-squared analysis and interrupted time-series analysis were conducted to examine impacts of easing and re-introducing COVID-19 measures. Overall, mental health improves overtime but at a decreasing rate. The use of telephone/video consultations with a doctor or health professional presented a decreasing trend during the pandemic, whilst that of in-person consultation was increasing overtime. We observed significant variations in the time trends of mental health measures, healthcare utilisation and physical activity following the ease but not the re-introduction of COVID-19 measures. Future research is required to understand if these asymmetric impacts were driven by adaption of the people or stringency of the measures.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10433-022-00741-y.

This study aimed to explore the effects of age and educational level on recall performance and organisational strategies used during recall as a function of the level of memory task difficulty. Younger (n = 55, age range = 20-39 years) and older (n = 45, age range = 65-75 years) adults learned a word list where the words were either already semantically grouped (easier) or presented in pseudo-random order (harder), and then recalled the words. The number of words recalled was calculated, and an index of clustering was computed to assess organisational strategies. Older adults recalled less words than the younger ones. Older adults with a higher educational level recalled more words than their counterparts with a lower educational level when the memory task was easier, but they all performed similarly on the harder memory task. Moreover, we noted a strong positive association between educational level and semantic organisation in older adults when the memory task was easier. Regardless of educational level, older adults used semantic organisation as much as younger adults when the memory task was easier. However, when the memory task was harder, older adults showed significantly less organisational strategies than younger adults, the latter using semantic organisation to boost their recall performance. In sum, the protective effect of educational level seems to be restricted on recall performance, but not organisational strategies, in easy memory tasks providing sufficient external information about the most efficient mnemonic strategy to use.

In Europe, the epidemiological transition has already taken place, while the demographic transition continues. Life expectancy at 65 is expanding for both women and men. The primary aim of this work is to identify the factors associated with life expectancy at 65 for women and men in Europe. The second aim is to confirm the influence of cultural factors on life expectancy. Finally, the link between spending on pensions, soil pollution, and life expectancy is also tested. Data for 31 European countries for the period 2004-2018 have been collected to estimate a linear panel data model. Life expectancy at 65 for women and men is the dependent variable. Independent variables are grouped into socioeconomic, cultural, and environmental conditions. The main result of this work is the importance of GDP per capita, and education and pension expenditure in explaining the heterogeneity of life expectancy at 65 across countries. Other significant results include the association of cultural characteristics, air pollution, and soil pollution with life expectancy. The design of policies for older adults and the improvement of their health and active life should consider not only differences in education but cultural characteristics, too. European directives that disregard people's cultural differences may not have the expected result.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10433-022-00695-1.