Predictors of health anxiety among older and young adults

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (12) ◽  
pp. 1998-2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsay A. Gerolimatos ◽  
Barry A. Edelstein
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Anxiety Sensitivity ◽  
Health Anxiety ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽  
Behavioral Model ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Anxiety Control ◽  
Cognitive Behavioral Model

ABSTRACTBackground: Many older adults have at least one chronic disease and experience greater health problems than young adults. However, little is known about factors other than health that account for health anxiety (HA) among older adults. The overall objective of the present study was to develop a better understanding of HA among older and young adults.Methods: We examined how anxiety-related constructs (anxiety sensitivity, intolerance of uncertainty, anxiety control, and emotion regulation) predict two core components of HA described in the cognitive–behavioral model of HA (illness likelihood and negative consequences) in older and young adults. We also examined the extent to which the predictor variables differentially account for HA in both age groups. Older and young adult participants completed several self-report surveys.Results: Young adults reported higher levels of HA than older adults. Anxiety sensitivity and reappraisal predicted illness likelihood for older and young adults. Intolerance of uncertainty predicted negative consequences in both age groups. Anxiety sensitivity predicted negative consequences for older adults only. Anxiety control did not predict illness likelihood or negative consequences for either age group.Conclusions: Results suggest that anxiety sensitivity and intolerance of uncertainty may predispose older and young adults to HA, which is influenced by reappraisal. Implications for the cognitive–behavioral model of HA in both age groups are discussed.

Health anxiety among older people: an exploratory study of health anxiety and safety behaviors in a cohort of older adults in New Zealand

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 549-558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann F. Boston ◽  
Paul L. Merrick
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Older People ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Health Anxiety ◽  
Behavioral Model ◽  
Medical Utilization ◽  
Cognitive Behavioral ◽  
Safety Behaviors ◽  
Cognitive Behavioral Model

ABSTRACTBackground: Despite a stereotype that characterizes older people as excessively anxious about their health, there is little research into this phenomenon. The present exploratory study examined: (a) whether a cohort of older adults was unduly health anxious, (b) which demographic and health factors predicted health anxiety (HA), and (c) whether an aspect of the cognitive behavioral model of HA was applicable to older adults by investigating the relationship between HA and safety behaviors.Method: Participants were a convenience sample of adults aged over 65 and living independently in Auckland, New Zealand. Participants (104 women and 41 men) completed an anonymous self-report questionnaire measuring demographic factors, physical health and function, health anxiety, safety behaviors, and medical utilization.Results: This cohort of adults over 65 were not unduly health anxious. Occurrence of severe HA was similar to that found in younger populations. Decreased physical function and lower education predicted scores on the HA measure. Consistent with the cognitive behavioral model, HA was a unique significant predictor of safety behaviors. HA and decreased physical function predicted medical utilization.Conclusions: Generally low levels of HA among this cohort of older individuals challenged the pervasive stereotype of the “hypochondriacal” older person. Factors contributing to HA were similar to those reported in studies with younger cohorts. Findings provided preliminary support for the applicability of the cognitive behavioral model of HA to adults over 65. Implications of the findings and directions for future research were discussed.

scholarly journals Opioid Literacy in an Immigrant Group in Rural Area: Use of Social Determinant of Health Framework

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 397-397
Author(s):  
Hee Yun Lee ◽  
Eun Young Choi ◽  
Jieun Song ◽  
Jamie Gajos ◽  
Yan Luo
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Health Literacy ◽  
Rural Area ◽  
Limited English Proficiency ◽  
English Proficiency ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Social Determinant ◽  
Opioid Overdose ◽  
Middle Aged

Abstract Opioid overdose risk is particularly high in immigrant communities partly due to limited English proficiency (Guarino et al., 2015). Previous studies reported that social determinants of health (SDH) have been associated with risk for opioid overdose (Dasgupta et al., 2018). The current study examines the association between SDH and literacy of opioid overdose risk among the immigrant population living in a rural area. Specifically, we examine the association in various age groups including young adults (aged 20 to 34), middle-aged (aged 35 to 49), and older adults (ages 50 to 75). Data were drawn from a sample of Korean American immigrants residing in rural Alabama (N=225). The participants administered the Brief Opioid Knowledge (BOOK) Questionnaire (Dunn et al., 2016). Multiple regression analyses were conducted for three age groups to identify predictors of opioid literacy. Overall, older adults had lower levels of opioid literacy relative to their younger counterparts. Among young adults, low English proficiency, more chronic conditions, and greater depressive symptoms were significant predictors of limited opioid literacy. For the middle-aged adults, lower levels of health literacy and more pain symptoms were associated with limited opioid literacy. Among older adults, women, those with higher English proficiency, and lower health literacy had lower levels of opioid literacy. The findings demonstrated a greater vulnerability of older immigrants to limited opioid literacy. Different predictors based on SDH of limited opioid literacy across age groups have implications for tailored health promotion strategies to reduce opioid overdose risk.

scholarly journals Are the Acute Effects of THC Different in Aging Adults?

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 590
Author(s):  
Raeghan L. Mueller ◽  
Jarrod M. Ellingson ◽  
L. Cinnamon Bidwell ◽  
Angela D. Bryan ◽  
Kent E. Hutchison
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Young Group ◽  
Self Administration ◽  
Behavioral Measures ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Aging Adults

In recent years of expanding legalization, older adults have reported the largest increase in cannabis use of any age group. While its use has been studied extensively in young adults, little is known about the effects of THC in older adults and whether the risks of cannabis might be different, particularly concerning intoxication and cognition. The current study investigated whether age is associated with the deleterious effects of THC on cognitive performance and other behavioral measures before and after ad libitum self-administration of three different types of cannabis flower (THC dominant, THC + CBD, and CBD dominant). Age groups consisted of young adults (ages 21–25) and older adults (ages 55–70). Controlling for pre-use scores on all measures, the THC dominant chemovar produced a greater deleterious effect in younger adults compared with older adults in tests of learning and processing speed, whereas there were no differences between old and young in the effects of the other chemovars. In addition, the young group reported greater cannabis craving than the older group after using the THC chemovar. Consistent with some reports in the preclinical literature, the findings suggest that older adults may be less sensitive to the effects of THC on cognitive and affective measures.

scholarly journals Slowed sensory reweighting and postural illusions in older adults: the moving platform illusion

2019 ◽  
Vol 121 (2) ◽  
pp. 690-700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chesney E. Craig ◽  
Michail Doumas
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Postural Sway ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Sensory Reweighting ◽  
Perceptual Illusion ◽  
Healthy Older Adults ◽  
Stable Conditions ◽  
Illusory Perception

We investigated whether postural aftereffects witnessed during transitions from a moving to a stable support are accompanied by a delayed perception of platform stabilization in older adults, in two experiments. In experiment 1, postural sway and muscle cocontraction were assessed in 11 healthy young, 11 healthy older, and 11 fall-prone older adults during blindfolded stance on a fixed platform, followed by a sway-referenced platform and then by a fixed platform again. The sway-referenced platform was more compliant for young adults, to induce similar levels of postural sway in both age groups. Participants were asked to press a button whenever they perceived that the platform had stopped moving. Both older groups showed significantly larger and longer postural sway aftereffects during platform stabilization compared with young adults, which were pronounced in fall-prone older adults. In both older groups elevated muscle cocontraction aftereffect was also witnessed. Importantly, these aftereffects were accompanied by an illusory perception of prolonged platform movement. After this, experiment 2 examined whether this illusory perception was a robust age effect or an experimental confound due to greater surface compliance in young adults, which could create a larger perceptual discrepancy between moving and stable conditions. Despite exposure to the same surface compliance levels during sway-reference, the perceptual illusion was maintained in experiment 2 in a new group of 14 healthy older adults compared with 11 young adults. In both studies, older adults took five times longer than young adults to perceive platform stabilization. This supports that sensory reweighting is inefficient in older adults. NEW & NOTEWORTHY This is the first paper to show that postural sway aftereffects witnessed in older adults after platform stabilization may be due to a perceptual illusion of platform movement. Surprisingly, in both experiments presented it took older adults five times longer than young adults to perceive platform stabilization. This supports a hypothesis of less efficient sensory reintegration in this age group, which may delay the formation of an accurate postural percept.

scholarly journals Negative Effects of Embodiment in a Visuo-Spatial Working Memory Task in Children, Young Adults, and Older Adults

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianluca Amico ◽  
Sabine Schaefer
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Negative Effects

Studies examining the effect of embodied cognition have shown that linking one’s body movements to a cognitive task can enhance performance. The current study investigated whether concurrent walking while encoding or recalling spatial information improves working memory performance, and whether 10-year-old children, young adults, or older adults (Mage = 72 years) are affected differently by embodiment. The goal of the Spatial Memory Task was to encode and recall sequences of increasing length by reproducing positions of target fields in the correct order. The nine targets were positioned in a random configuration on a large square carpet (2.5 m × 2.5 m). During encoding and recall, participants either did not move, or they walked into the target fields. In a within-subjects design, all possible combinations of encoding and recall conditions were tested in counterbalanced order. Contrary to our predictions, moving particularly impaired encoding, but also recall. These negative effects were present in all age groups, but older adults’ memory was hampered even more strongly by walking during encoding and recall. Our results indicate that embodiment may not help people to memorize spatial information, but can create a dual-task situation instead.

The effects of age on prototype- and exemplar-based categorization

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin Bowman ◽  
Takako Iwashita ◽  
Dagmar Zeithamova
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Concept Learning ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Central Tendency ◽  
Concepts And Categories ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
Category Labels

The need to learn new concepts and categories persists through the lifespan, yet little is known about how aging affects concept learning and generalization. Here, we trained young and older adults to classify typical and boundary category members and then tested category generalization to new stimuli. During training, older adults had increased difficulty compared to young adults learning category labels for boundary items, but not typical items. At test, categorization performance that included new items at all levels of typicality was comparable across age groups, but formal categorization models indicated that older adults relied to a greater degree on generalized (prototype) category representations than young adults. These findings align with the proposal that older adults are able to form category representations based on central tendency even when they have difficulty learning and remembering individual category members. More broadly, the results contribute to our understanding of multiple categorization strategies and the limited strategy flexibility in older adults. They also highlight how reliance on

Conceptualizations of ‘cyberchondria’ and relations to the anxiety spectrum: A systematic review and meta-analyses (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Kathrin Schenkel ◽  
Stefanie M. Jungmann ◽  
Maria Gropalis ◽  
Michael Witthoeft
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Internet Use ◽  
Strong Association ◽  
Health Anxiety ◽  
Behavioral Model ◽  
Cognitive Behavioral ◽  
Safety Behavior ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Cognitive Behavioral Model ◽  
Meta Analyses

BACKGROUND “Cyberchondria” describes detrimental effects of health-related Internet use. Current conceptualizations agree that cyberchondria is associated with anxiety-related pathologies and might best be conceptualized as a safety behavior, but little is known about its exact underlying mechanisms. OBJECTIVE The present systematic review and meta-analyses were conducted (a) to give an overview of conceptualizations of cyberchondria and its relation to anxiety-related pathologies, (b) to quantify the strength of association to health anxiety by using meta-analytic analyses, and (c) to highlight gaps in the literature, and (d) to outline a hypothetical integrative cognitive-behavioral model of cyberchondria based on the available empirical evidence. METHODS A systematic literature search was conducted using the PubMed, Web of Science, and PsycInfo electronic databases. N = 25 studies were included for the qualitative and n = 7 studies, comprising N = 3,069 individuals, for the quantitative synthesis. Meta-analyses revealed a strong association of cyberchondria (r = .63) and its subfacets (rs = .24 - .66) to health anxiety. RESULTS Results indicate that cyberchondria is a construct distinct, yet related to, health anxiety, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, intolerance of uncertainty, and anxiety sensitivity. Further studies should distinguish between state and trait markers of anxiety-related pathologies and use experimental and naturalistic longitudinal designs to differentiate among risk factors, triggers, and consequences related to cyberchondria. CONCLUSIONS Health-related Internet use in the context of health anxiety is best conceptualized as a health-related safety behavior maintained through intermittent reinforcement. We present a corresponding integrative cognitive-behavioral model.

scholarly journals EXPLORING AGE, GENDER, AND RELATIONSHIP CLOSENESS DIFFERENCES IN RESPONSES TO IGNORED DISRESPECT

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S305-S305
Author(s):  
Jenessa C Steele ◽  
Amanda Chappell ◽  
Rachel Scott
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Relationship Closeness ◽  
Close Condition

Abstract Emotional responses to disrespect tend to be negative (Hawkins, 2015). Little is known about how responses to disrespect vary across age groups and relationship closeness. It is unknown whether older adults have more emotional protection against disrespectful experiences, or are more deeply affected due to relationship closeness. Overall, we might expect that older adults react less negatively to disrespect compared to young adults, as they are more-skilled emotion regulators (Carstensen, 1991; English & Carstensen, 2014). We aimed to explore if, and under which circumstances, older adults are more or less sensitive to disrespect compared to younger adults. Three hundred participants responded to six scenarios illustrating ignored disrespect. Participants were randomly assigned to close or distant relationship disrespect scenarios. Relationship closeness was first determined by requesting participants identify a person in each layer of Kahn and Antonucci’s (1980) Social Convoy Model. Identified names were then automatically inserted into the six scenarios. Emotional responses and sensitivity to each scenario were recorded. Participants in the close condition reported more sensitivity to disrespect and negative emotions than participants in the distant condition. Females reported more sensitivity to disrespect and negative emotions than males. We did not find overwhelming support for age differences in responses to disrespect. A single scenario indicated younger participants more sensitive to disrespect than older participants. Findings suggest it is more hurtful to be disrespected by someone close to you and females may be more sensitive to disrespect than males. More research investigating the role of age in disrespect is needed.

Changes in the Dynamic Stability of Walking in Active Healthy Older Adults Independent of Changes in Walking Speed

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyun Gu Kang ◽  
Jonathan B. Dingwell
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Dynamic Stability ◽  
Walking Speed ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Leg Strength ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Risk Of Falls ◽  
Walking Speeds

Older adults commonly walk slower, which many believe helps improve their walking stability. However, they remain at increased risk of falls. We investigated how differences in age and walking speed independently affect dynamic stability during walking, and how age-related changes in leg strength and ROM affected this relationship. Eighteen active healthy older and 17 younger adults walked on a treadmill for 5 minutes each at each of 5 speeds (80–120% of preferred). Local divergence exponents and maximum Floquet multipliers (FM) were calculated to quantify each subject’s responses to small inherent perturbations during walking. These older adults exhibited the same preferred walking speeds as the younger subjects (p = 0.860). However, these older adults still exhibited greater local divergence exponents (p<0.0001) and higher maximum FM (p<0.007) than young adults at all walking speeds. These older adults remained more unstable (p<0.04) even after adjusting for declines in both strength and ROM. In both age groups, local divergence exponents decreased at slower speeds and increased at faster speeds (p<0.0001). Maximum FM showed similar changes with speed (p<0.02). The older adults in this study were healthy enough to walk at normal speeds. However, these adults were still more unstable than the young adults, independent of walking speed. This greater instability was not explained by loss of leg strength and ROM. Slower speeds led to decreased instability in both groups.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document