scholarly journals Risk Perception, Preventive Behavior, and Medical Care Avoidance among American Older Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 089826432110020
Author(s):  
Peiyi Lu ◽  
Dexia Kong ◽  
Mack Shelley
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Risk Perception ◽  
Medical Care ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
Female Gender ◽  
Path Coefficient ◽  
Preventive Behavior ◽  
Ensure Patient Safety ◽  
Frequency Probability

Objectives: This study investigated the predictors of risk perception and its effect on older adults’ preventive behavior and/or medical care avoidance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Older respondents (age >50 years) from the MIT COVID-19 Preventive Health Survey reported their social distancing, hand washing, mask wearing, and medical care avoidance between July and October 2020 ( n = 4395). Structural equation models were used. Results: Significant predictors of higher risk perception were female gender, older age, poorer health, city residency, personally knowing someone who had COVID-19, and correct knowledge of vaccine/treatment. Higher risk perception was subsequently associated with higher frequency/probability of practicing preventive behavior and/or avoiding medical care. Knowledge had the strongest path coefficient with risk perception. Discussion: Disseminating correct information to older adults could help them evaluate infection risk accurately. Educational programs on the precautions implemented at clinical settings to ensure patient safety may encourage older adults to seek timely medical care.

scholarly journals The Structural Equation Modeling of Personal Aspects, Environmental Aspects, and Happiness Among Older Adults Living Alone: A Cross-Sectional Study  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eun Jeong Hwang ◽  
In Ok Sim
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Goodness Of Fit ◽  
Subjective Health ◽  
Living Alone ◽  
Path Coefficient ◽  
Social Activities ◽  
Subjective Health Status ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Fit Index

Abstract Background The happiness of older adults living alone warrants attention because they are more vulnerable to unhappiness than those living with families. The present study aimed to construct and test a structural equation model to elucidate the causal relationship among participation in social activities, satisfaction with the neighborhood environment, subjective health status, and happiness in older adults living alone in South Korea. Methods Secondary data of 2,768 older adults (605 males and 2,163 females) living on their own were extracted from the 2017 Korean Community Health Survey and used in this cross-sectional study. Data were collected via self-reported questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS version 20.0 and AMOS version 20.0. Results The hypothetical model exhibited a good fit: χ2 = 342.06 (df = 58, p < .001), goodness-of-fit index = .98, adjected goodness-of-fit index = .97, root mean square error of approximation = .04, and nonstandard fit index = .92. Participation in social activities had a significant effect on participants’ subjective health status (path coefficient = .45, p = .001) and happiness (path coefficient = .20, p = .003). Conclusions Interventions to improve the health and happiness of older adults living alone should aim to enhance their social and physical environmental dimensions based on the participants' various social activities and their neighborhoods' characteristics.

scholarly journals MOTIVATION TO LEARN, LITERACY, NUMERACY, AND LATER-LIFE ADULT EDUCATION PARTICIPATION IN THE U.S.

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S664-S664
Author(s):  
Takashi Yamashita ◽  
Phyllis Cummins ◽  
Roberto J Millar ◽  
Shalini Sahoo ◽  
Thomas J Smith
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Adult Education ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
Basic Skills ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Motivation To Learn ◽  
Latent Construct ◽  
Education Participation ◽  
The U.S

Abstract The objective of this study is to examine the associations between the motivation to learn, basic skills (i.e., literacy and numeracy), and organized formal and non-formal adult education and training (AET) participation among middle-aged and older adults in the U.S. Rapid technological advancement and globalization requires that adults engage in lifelong learning to actively participate in society. However, little is known about the roles of motivation to learn and basic skills in AET participation among aging adults in the U.S. We obtained restricted data from the 2012/2014 Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies, and included adults aged 50 years and older (n = 2,580) in the analysis. Structural equation models were used to examine (1) any AET, (2) formal AET and (3) non-formal AET participation as a function of the latent construct of motivation to learn, literacy and numeracy scores (0 – 500), and covariates. Per the confirmatory factor analysis, the motivation to learn latent construct was a valid measure among the older adults. Results from the structural equation models showed that the motivation to learn (b = 0.35, p &lt; 0.05), literacy (b = 0.05, p &lt; 0.05) and numeracy (b = 0.03, p &lt; 0.05) are all positive predictors of non-formal AET participation. However, only motivation to learn (b = 0.47, p &lt; 0.05) is associated with formal AET participation. Findings from this study inform future interventions as well as policy changes to promote specific types of organized AET programs among the aging populations in the U.S.

Factors Influencing Intention to Technological Use in Older Adults. The TAM Model Aplication

2021 ◽  
pp. 016402752110637
Author(s):  
Antonio V. Martín-García ◽  
Rosa Redolat ◽  
Sacramento Pinazo-Hernandis
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Perceived Usefulness ◽  
Functional Adaptation ◽  
Perceived Ease Of Use ◽  
Tam Model ◽  
Main Determinants

The use of digital technology by older adults has improved in recent years in response to the need for their functional adaptation to an increasingly technological social context. Understanding this type of technological adaptation has recently become an important field of inquiry in both social and gerontological studies. Working within this framework, the aim of this study is to identify the main determinants that influence the intention of older people to use digital technology in their daily lives, using the Technological Acceptance Model. A study was carried out with the participation of 1155 people over 65 years of age in Spain. Confirmatory Factor Analysis and structural equation models (SEM) were performed. The results show that the TAM is a useful model to explain the intention of older adults to use Digital Technology, showing a high predictive power, highlighting Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use as the main predictor variables.

scholarly journals Effects of trust, risk perception, and health behavior on COVID-19 disease burden: Evidence from a multi-state US survey

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin J Ridenhour ◽  
Dilshani Sarathchandra ◽  
Erich Seamon ◽  
Helen Brown ◽  
Fok-Yan Leung ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Perception ◽  
Behavioral Intention ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Disease Burden ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
Cognitive Model ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Cognitive Model

Early public health strategies to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the United States relied on non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) as vaccines and therapeutic treatments were not yet available. Implementation of NPIs, primarily social distancing and mask wearing, varied widely between communities within the US due to variable government mandates, as well as differences in attitudes and opinions. To understand the interplay of trust, risk perception, behavioral intention, and disease burden, we developed a survey instrument to study attitudes concerning COVID-19 and pandemic behavioral change in three states: Idaho, Texas, and Vermont. We designed our survey (n = 1034) to detect whether these relationships were significantly different in rural populations. The best fitting structural equation models show that trust indirectly affects protective pandemic behaviors via health and economic risk perception. We explore two different variations of this social cognitive model: the first assumes behavioral intention affects future disease burden while the second assumes that observed disease burden affects behavioral intention. In our models we include several exogenous variables to control for demographic and geographic effects. Notably, political ideology is the only exogenous variable which significantly affects all aspects of the social cognitive model (trust, risk perception, and behavioral intention). While there is a direct negative effect associated with rurality on disease burden, likely due to the protective effect of low population density in the early pandemic waves, we found a marginally significant, positive, indirect effect of rurality on disease burden via decreased trust (p = 0.095). This trust deficit creates additional vulnerabilities to COVID-19 in rural communities which also have reduced healthcare capacity. Increasing trust by methods such as in-group messaging could potentially remove some of the disparities inferred by our models and increase NPI effectiveness.

scholarly journals Including phenotypic causal networks in genome-wide association studies using mixed effects structural equation models

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehdi Momen ◽  
Ahmad Ayatollahi Mehrgardi ◽  
Mahmoud Amiri Roudbar ◽  
Andreas Kranis ◽  
Renan Mercuri Pinto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
Association Studies ◽  
Genome Wide Association ◽  
Path Coefficient ◽  
Genome Wide Association Studies ◽  
Causal Relationships ◽  
Multiple Phenotypes ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Highest Posterior Density

AbstractBackgroundPhenotypic networks describing putative causal relationships among multiple phenotypes can be used to infer single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) effects in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). In GWAS with multiple phenotypes, reconstructing underlying causal structures among traits and SNPs using a single statistical framework is essential for understanding the entirety of genotype-phenotype maps. A structural equation model (SEM) can be used for such purposes.MethodsWe applied SEM to GWAS (SEM-GWAS) in chickens, taking into account putative causal relationships among body weight (BW), breast meat (BM), hen-house production (HHP), and SNPs. We assessed the performance of SEM-GWAS by comparing the model results with those obtained from traditional multi-trait association analyses (MTM-GWAS).ResultsThree different putative causal path diagrams were inferred from highest posterior density (HPD) intervals of 0.75, 0.85, and 0.95 using the inductive causation algorithm. A positive path coefficient was estimated for BM→BW, and negative values were obtained for BM→HHP and BW→HHP in all implemented scenarios. Further, the application of SEM-GWAS enabled the decomposition of SNP effects into direct, indirect, and total effects, identifying whether a SNP effect is acting directly or indirectly on a given trait. In contrast, MTM-GWAS only captured overall genetic effects on traits, which is equivalent to combining the direct and indirect SNP effects from SEMGWAS.ConclusionsAlthough MTM-GWAS and SEM-GWAS use the same probabilistic models, we provide evidence that SEM-GWAS captures complex relationships and delivers a more comprehensive understanding of SNP effects compared to MTM-GWAS. Our results showed that SEM-GWAS provides important insight regarding the mechanism by which identified SNPs control traits by partitioning them into direct, indirect, and total SNP effects.

scholarly journals The mediating roles of functional limitations and social support on the relationship between vision impairment and depressive symptoms in older adults

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 465-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiuquan Gong ◽  
Zhao Ni ◽  
Bei Wu
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
Functional Limitations ◽  
Vision Impairment ◽  
Structural Relationships ◽  
Mediating Mechanisms ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractVision impairment is prevalent and it is strongly associated with depressive symptoms in older adults. This study aimed to investigate the mediating roles of functional limitations and social support on the relationship between vision impairment and depressive symptoms in older adults. This study used data from a probability-based sample of 1,093 adults aged 60 and older in Shanghai, China. Structural equation models were used to examine the structural relationships among sets of variables simultaneously, including vision impairment, activities of daily living ADLs, instrumental ADLs (IADLs), friends support, family support, relatives support and depressive symptoms. The bootstrapping method and the program PRODCLIN were used to test the indirect effects of these variables. This study found that vision impairment was directly associated with a higher level of depressive symptoms, and the association was partially mediated by functional limitations (IADLs) and social support (friends support). The study demonstrates that improving social support from friends and enhancing social participation for visually impaired older adults can reduce depressive symptoms. More importantly, this study contributes to the knowledge of mediating mechanisms between vision impairment and depressive symptoms.

scholarly journals Baseline Body Mass Predicts Average Depressive Symptoms over the Next Two Decades for White but Not Black Older Adults

Geriatrics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shervin Assari
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Racial Differences ◽  
Body Mass ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
The United States ◽  
Bidirectional Association ◽  
National Cohort ◽  
Baseline Bmi

Background: Although obesity and depression have a bidirectional association, this link may vary based on race. The current study tested racial variation in bidirectional links between depressive symptoms and body mass index (BMI) over 24 years of follow-up in older adults over the age of 50 in the United States. We hypothesized weaker bidirectional links in Blacks compared to Whites. Methods: Data came from waves 1 to 12 (1990 to 2014) of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), an ongoing state-of-the-art national cohort. The study followed a representative sample of Americans (n = 15,194; 2,200 Blacks and 12,994 Whites) over the age of 50. Dependent variables were average depressive symptoms and BMI over 24 years, based on measurements every other year, from 1990 to 2014. Independent variables included baseline depressive symptoms and BMI. Covariates included age, gender, marital status, veteran status, and activities of daily living. Structural equation models were fitted to the data for data analysis. Results: In the pooled sample, bidirectional associations were found between BMI and depressive symptoms as baseline BMI predicted average depressive symptoms over time and baseline depressive symptoms predicted average BMI over 24 years. Racial differences were found in the bidirectional association between BMI and depressive symptoms, with both directions of the associations being absent for Blacks. For Whites, baseline BMI predicted average depressive symptoms over the next 24 years. Conclusion: Reciprocal associations between BMI and depressive symptoms over a 24-year period among individuals over the age of 50 vary for Blacks and Whites. As these associations are stronger for Whites than Blacks, clinical and public health programs that simultaneously target comorbid obesity and depression may be more appropriate for Whites than Blacks.

scholarly journals Literacy Skills, Immigration, and Motivation to Learn Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults in the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 330-330
Author(s):  
Shalini Sahoo ◽  
Roberto Millar ◽  
Taka Yamashita ◽  
Phyllis Cummins
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Lifelong Learning ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
The United States ◽  
Education And Training ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Motivation To Learn ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
And Training

Abstract Education and training over the life course or lifelong learning has become critical in the fast-changing U.S. society. Foundation skills (e.g., literacy), motivation, curiosity, as well as access to learning opportunities are essential to promote lifelong learning. Despite the importance of these promoting factors, empirical research focusing on complex relationships between literacy skills, immigration and motivation to learn (MtL) among middle-aged and older adults is scarce. The objective of this study is to examine how literacy skills and immigration (vs. U.S. born) are associated with MtL among middle-aged and older adults in the U.S. Nationally representative data (n = 8,670) of adults aged 45 years and older were obtained from the 2012/2014 Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). Structural equation models were constructed to examine the formerly tested and validated latent MtL construct based on four 5-point Likert-type scale items among the sub-population of interest. Results showed that higher literacy skills (0-500 points; b = 0.002, p &lt; 0.05) was associated with greater MtL. Additionally, immigrants were less likely (b = -0.114, p &lt; 0.05) to have greater MtL than those who are non-immigrants (i.e. U.S. born). Higher literacy skills may indicate positive experiences in previous adult education and training and greater readiness for further learning. Findings from this study provide new empirical evidence of lifelong learning determinants. Educators and researchers should be aware of limited literacy and being an immigrant as potential barriers to knowledge-seeking in later life.

Associations Between Social Connectedness, Emotional Well-Being, and Self-Rated Health Among Older Adults: Difference by Relationship Status

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 336-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley E. Ermer ◽  
Christine M. Proulx
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Social Connectedness ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Network Size ◽  
Relationship Status ◽  
Friend Support ◽  
Self Rated Health

The present study investigates the association between social connectedness (i.e., social network characteristics, family and friend support, and social ties with neighbors), emotional well-being, and self-rated health and whether these associations differ based on respondents’ relationship status among adults aged 62 and older. A series of multigroup generalized structural equation models (GSEMs) were conducted using data from the National Social, Health, and Aging Project. Social connectedness items were mostly positively associated with emotional well-being and self-rated health, and several of these associations are stronger for older adults who are unpartnered versus those who are cohabiting or married. Cohabiting and married individuals do not appear to have the same associations between social network size, friend support, and emotional well-being compared to unpartnered older adults. The present study lends support for how a variety of social supports are vital for older adults and their well-being.

scholarly journals Aging Living at Home: Residential Satisfaction among Active Older Adults Based on the Perceived Home Model

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (17) ◽  
pp. 8959
Author(s):  
Josue G. Amián ◽  
David Alarcón ◽  
Cristina Fernández-Portero ◽  
Jose A. Sánchez-Medina
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Internal Control ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Residential Satisfaction ◽  
Control Beliefs ◽  
External Control ◽  
Perceived Usability ◽  
Meaning Of Home

Background: Housing plays an important role in the aging process and health. The house and its nearby environment host most of the daily activities of older adults. Residential satisfaction (RS) has been relegated to physical issues such as accessibility. However, RS is also constituted by older adults’ perceptions about housing. This study analyzes the perceived home that develops RS in older adults. Methods: A random sample of 714 participants aged 50 to 84 (mean = 65; SD = 0.98) were used. Participants lived in ordinary housing in southern Spain. Scales measure perceptions of RS, meaning, functionality and belief of control over the home. Results: Analyses were performed using structural equation models to evaluate the dependence relationships between the different perceptions evaluated. We observe a direct influence of internal control on usability (β = 0.84) and perceived meanings (β = 0.49). However, external control shows a negative influence on the meaning of home (β = −0.14). Perceived usability (β = 0.68) and meaning (β = 0.32) positively influence RS. Conclusion: Perceptions of meaning, functionality and RS itself depend on internal housing-related control beliefs. Active older adults with higher internal control perceived their home fit better to the need of everyday life and improve RS.

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