Journals of Gerontology Series B-Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences最新文献

Objectives: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) older adults have varied experiences with faith communities, ranging from affirmation to religious trauma. We investigate how faith community rejection affects social support and health outcomes among LGBTQ+ older adults in the Southern United States.

Methods: We analyze Wave 1 data from the LGBTQ+ Social Networks, Aging, and Policy Study (QSNAPS), collected between April 2020 and September 2021. This sample included 1,256 LGBTQ+ adults aged 50+ residing in four Southern U.S. states. Bivariate and Poisson regression analyses were conducted to examine associations of LGBTQ-related faith community rejection with social support and health outcomes.

Results: Nearly half (44%) of QSNAPS respondents reported LGBTQ-related faith community rejection. Respondents who reported rejection were more likely to be: transgender or gender diverse (p < .01) and from a minoritized racial/ethnic background (p < .01). Compared with respondents who never experienced faith community rejection, respondents who experienced LGBTQ-related faith community rejection reported a lower prevalence of family support (APR = 0.80; p < .001); higher prevalence of symptoms related to moderate to severe psychological distress (APR = 1.27; p < .001); higher prevalence of poor sleep quality (APR = 1.17; p < .05); and high blood pressure diagnosis (APR = 1.13; p < .05). We also find a marginally statistically significant association between faith community rejection and higher prevalence of symptoms related to subjective cognitive decline (APR = 1.35; p < .10).

Discussion: Experiences of faith community rejection come with substantial social support and health costs for LGBTQ+ older adults. Our findings highlight the importance of integrating faith and promoting inclusion within affirming faith communities for LGBTQ+ aging-related care and prevention.

Objectives: This study aimed to explore a broad range of predictors of generativity in older adults. The study included over 60 predictors across multiple domains, including personality, daily functioning, socioeconomic factors, health status, and mental well-being.

Methods: A random forest machine learning algorithm was used. Data were drawn from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) survey.

Results: Social potency, openness, social integration, personal growth, and achievement orientation were the strongest predictors of generativity. Notably, many demographic (e.g., income) and health-related variables (e.g., chronic health conditions) were found to be much less predictive.

Discussion: This study provides new data-driven insights into the nature of generativity. The findings suggest that generativity is more closely associated with eudaimonic and plasticity-related variables (e.g., personal growth and social potency) rather than hedonic and homeostasis-oriented ones (e.g., life satisfaction and emotional stability). This indicates that generativity is an inherently dynamic construct, driven by a desire for exploration, social contribution, and personal growth.

Objectives: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality globally. Examining trends in CVD burden and associated sociodemographic disparities can contribute to tailoring policies that promote cardiovascular health and narrow health disparities. However, existing studies predominantly focus only on mortality. Therefore, we provide a more comprehensive understanding of CVD trends by studying the diverse aspects of CVD burden: lifetime risk, onset age, CVD-free and CVD life expectancy, and survival with CVD. We focus on the overall Finnish population in 1996-2020, as well as gender and educational disparities.

Methods: We use sociodemographic information from individual-level population registers, which are linked to hospital discharge and Death Registers, on the entire Finnish population aged 40-100 years in five five-year periods in 1996-2020 (N = 2,796,732-3,273,232). We employed multistate models to derive the study metrics.

Results: Overall, CVD's lifetime risk stabilizes at 72% following a rise, with onset age and CVD-free life expectancy increased by 3 years. Although men bear a higher CVD burden, they experience a greater increase in onset age and CVD-free expectancy than women. Educational disparities in CVD-free expectancy persist, exceeding 3.5 years for men and women. Furthermore, survival with CVD has extended by 2.8 years but educational disparities widen.

Discussion: Despite the encouraging CVD trends in the overall population and progress in narrowing gender disparities, there remains considerable room for further improvement. Persistent educational disparities in CVD burden underscore the need for more effective interventions to address enduring inequalities.

Objectives: This study examines employment responses to a partner's disability onset and how this is moderated by working conditions: job satisfaction and psychosocial job demands.

Methods: We use longitudinal nationally representative data from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging. Following the health shock literature, we identify individuals whose partners report the onset of difficulties in activities of daily living (ADL) or instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) between 2 waves (n = 1,020) as experiencing a "care shock." We combine coarsened exact matching and entropy balancing, and logistic modeling to estimate the impact of such a "care shock" on the probability of leaving paid work, working part-time, changing jobs, or looking for a new job. We also explore the moderating effect of gender and working conditions (i.e., job demands and job satisfaction) on the impact of a "care shock" on work transitions.

Results: Our findings show that "care shocks" significantly increase individuals' likelihood of leaving paid work. This effect is moderated by job demands and job satisfaction. Individuals who report high job demands and job dissatisfaction before the care shock are significantly more likely to leave paid work. In contrast, those with low job demands or job satisfaction show no significant difference in their likelihood of leaving paid work.

Discussion: Our study highlights the role of working conditions in moderating the impact of care shocks on paid work. It informs workplace policies, as our results suggest that adapting working conditions may facilitate participation in the labor market in late career stages.

Objectives: We examined long-term trajectories of depressive symptoms among older adults following exposure to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. We further characterized the pre- and post-disaster social relationship factors that predicted membership in each trajectory group.

Methods: Data from 4 time points (including pre-disaster data) were used to analyze the depression trajectories of 2,033 survivors through a group-based trajectory model. Multinomial logistic analysis was used to investigate the social relationship factors (i.e., social interactions with neighbors, social support, social participation, and social cohesion) that predicted membership to each trajectory group.

Results: Five distinct trajectories of depressive symptoms were identified; stably not depressed (12.4%), increased after the disaster (14.2%), decreased after the disaster (8.8%), persistent mild depressive symptoms (28.1%), and persistent severe depressive symptoms (36.5%). Compared to those who were stably not depressed, those who experienced an increase in symptoms were more likely to experience housing damage and not to participate in social activities. Compared to those who were stably mildly depressed, those who experienced a decrease in symptoms had higher pre-disaster social interactions with neighbors as well as higher post-disaster social support. Adults with persistent severe symptoms were physically, psychologically, and socially vulnerable preceding the disaster.

Discussion: The study revealed the heterogeneity of older adults experiencing depressive symptoms in the wake of major disaster. Those who experienced increased symptoms after the disaster showed a chronic rather than temporary rise, while those with pre-disaster depressive symptoms showed sustained symptoms regardless of disaster-related trauma.

Objectives: Mindfulness interventions are consistently associated with beneficial effects in younger adults. In this meta-analysis, we seek to quantify the effectiveness of mindfulness interventions for the mental health and well-being of older adults.

Methods: We include 46 studies that implemented a mindfulness intervention (MBSR = 20; MBCT = 9; ad hoc protocol = 17) with older adults (samples with an average age of 60 or older; healthy adults = 20; adults with underlying symptoms = 26), examining a wide range of outcome measures (e.g., stress, quality of life, sleep).

Results: Mindfulness interventions in older adults yielded an estimated Hedges' g of 0.25. Moderator analyses revealed three significant effects. Type of intervention mattered, with the effect size for MBSR not significantly different from zero (Hedges' g = 0.12) while the effect sizes for MBCT (Hedges' g = 0.33) and "other" interventions (Hedges' g = 0.36) were. Outcome measure mattered, with significant beneficial effect sizes for mental functioning (Hedges' g = 0.59), depression (Hedges' g = 0.35), sleep (Hedges' g = 0.39), anxiety (Hedges' g = 0.32), "other" (Hedges' g = 0.24), stress (Hedges' g = 0.22) and mindfulness (Hedges' g = 0.23). Finally, whether the outcome was targeted (e.g., measures of depression in a population suffering from major depressive disorder) mattered: variables that measured targeted outcomes yielded stronger effects (Hedges' g = 0.30).

Discussion: Mindfulness interventions with older adults are effective, but modestly so. The extant literature is limited by reliance on modified interventions that have not been evaluated for effectiveness.

Objectives: Loneliness is associated with an elevated risk of dementia. There is mixed evidence from imaging studies on whether loneliness is associated with neuropathology in dementia-free adults. This study tests whether loneliness is associated with plasma neurobiomarkers of amyloid (Aβ42/Aβ40), phosphorylated tau 181 (pTau181), neurofilament light chain (NfL), and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and imaging measures of amyloid and tau.

Methods: Participants were cognitively unimpaired older adults from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study on Aging (BLSA; N = 1,028 individuals and up to 2,277 neurobiomarker measurements; Baseline mean age = 66, SD = 15 years) and the UK Biobank (N = 1,263 individuals and up to 2,526 neurobiomarker measurements; Baseline mean age = 60, SD = 7 years). Single-item measures of loneliness and the Quanterix Single Molecule Array assays were used in both samples. In a subset of BLSA participants, positron emission tomography (PET) was used to assess cerebral amyloid burden (n = 220) and tau in the entorhinal cortex (n = 102).

Results: In both samples and meta-analyses, loneliness was unrelated to plasma measures of Aβ42/Aβ40, pTau181, NfL, and GFAP. Changes in loneliness were also unrelated to changes in the plasma neurobiomarkers, and no consistent evidence of moderation by age, sex, or APOE ε4 allele was found. Loneliness was also unrelated to PET-based measures of amyloid and tau.

Discussion: This study found no associations between loneliness and measures of Alzheimer's disease pathology, axonal damage, or astrogliosis.

Objectives: This study examined the association between childhood adversity and late-life cognitive outcomes among older Puerto Rican adults.

Methods: Data were from the Puerto Rican Elder: Health Conditions study, a population-based cohort of 3,713 older Puerto Rican adults (mean age 72.5 years; 60% female). Adverse childhood experiences were categorized into four factors: economic hardship, parental illiteracy, childhood illness, and neighborhood disadvantage. Cognition was assessed with the Mini-Mental Cabán (MMC). For our analyses, cognitive impairment was defined as scoring 1.5 standard deviations below the expected score, adjusted for age, sex, education, and reading ability. Ordinal logistic regression (baseline) and generalized linear mixed models (all 3 waves) analyzed MMC scores; generalized estimating equations assessed incident cognitive impairment (Waves 2 and 3).

Results: All four adversity factors were associated with poorer MMC scores at baseline. Parental illiteracy (β = -0.35, p < .001) and neighborhood disadvantage (β = -0.27, p < .001) showed stronger associations than economic hardship (β = -0.10, p = .003) and childhood illness (β = -0.21, p < .001). No factors were significantly related to changes in cognitive scores over time. Depressive symptoms and self-rated health partially mediated cross-sectional relationships, with depressive symptoms showing a stronger effect. All adversity factors except economic hardship were linked to baseline cognitive impairment (OR = 1.42 parent illiteracy, OR = 1.24 childhood illness, OR = 1.82 neighborhood disadvantage, p < .05). Only neighborhood disadvantage was associated with incident cognitive impairment (OR = 1.19, p = .003).

Discussion: This study highlights the lasting effect of childhood adversity on late-life cognitive health among older Puerto Ricans, suggesting that addressing early adversity may promote cognitive health later in life.

Objectives: Maintaining a strong social network in later life can be challenging due to limited resources, life events, and changes in health. Social internet use provides an accessible way for communication that is less susceptible to age-related challenges. Although social internet use is increasingly used by older adults, we do not know how social internet use shapes older adults' offline networks. The purpose of this study is to examine whether social internet use can help maintain strong social relationships.

Methods: We used data from 3 waves (2012-2013, 2015-2016, and 2018-2019) of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam. Our sample included 2,266 older adults aged 55-99 (mean = 68.2 years, 54% female). We included the frequency of social internet use and computed personal network size, contact frequency, and the number of continued, gained, and lost ties over time. Hybrid models were applied to disentangle between within- and between-person associations.

Results: More frequent social internet users had significantly larger personal networks and, relative to the previous wave, more continued and gained network ties, compared to less frequent social internet users. A within-person increase in social internet use over time was associated with more continued and gained ties.

Discussion: Social internet use may help maintain a strong and stable network, which is important for social connectedness in later life. It allows for additional interaction opportunities, as well as network maintenance and growth. Social internet use thus proves to be a valuable addition to the social interaction resources of older adults.