Optimism, pessimism and health biomarkers in older couples

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reout Arbel ◽  
Dikla Segel-Karaps
Keyword(s):  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Multilevel Modeling ◽  
Biological Markers ◽  
Chronic Conditions ◽  
Marital Relationship ◽  
Summary Score ◽  
Health And Retirement Study ◽  
Older Couples ◽  
Older Adulthood ◽  
Retirement Study

Objective: Studies have demonstrated the importance of optimism to various health outcomes. However, fewer studies have focused on biological markers, and none have examined whether marital partners levels of optimism and pessimism affect each other's biological markers. Thus, our objectives were to examine whether one's partners optimism and pessimism affect own biological markers. Methods: Three waves of the Health and Retirement Study collected in 2006, 2010 and 2014 were used to test own and partner’s effect on CRP, HDL and Hba1c. Actor-Partner models were used to examine the contribution of partner’s optimism and pessimism on health. Multilevel modeling (MLM) was used to adjust for the interdependence of individuals within dyads. In a series of nine models we tested the separate contribution of pessimism and optimism to each biomarker, within each wave. All models were adjusted for respondent's age, sex and a summary score of respondent's doctor-diagnosed chronic conditions. Results: Partners’ pessimism ad optimism levels were moderately associated. Own and partner’s pessimism, but not optimism, showed significant associations with s partners’ health biomarkers levels. However, effects were not robust and occured primarily at the first assessment waves, when partners were in their early 60s. Conclusion: While optimism seems to have no effect, own and partner's pessimism affects biological markers. Interventions aimed at facilitating healthier life in older adulthood could aim at decreasing pessimism and taking a dyadic approach addressing both partners in a marital relationship.

scholarly journals Compensatory Conscientiousness and Health in Older Couples

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 553-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brent W. Roberts ◽  
Jacqui Smith ◽  
Joshua J. Jackson ◽  
Grant Edmonds
Keyword(s):  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Physical Functioning ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Health And Retirement Study ◽  
Older Couples ◽  
Physical Limitations ◽  
Compensatory Effect ◽  
Retirement Study

The present study tested the effect of conscientiousness and neuroticism on health and physical limitations in a representative sample of older couples ( N = 2,203) drawn from the Health and Retirement Study. As in past research, conscientiousness predicted better health and physical functioning, whereas neuroticism predicted worse health and physical functioning. Unique to this study was the finding that conscientiousness demonstrated a compensatory effect, such that husbands' conscientiousness predicted wives' health outcomes above and beyond wives' own personality. The same pattern held true for wives' conscientiousness as a predictor of husbands' health outcomes. Furthermore, conscientiousness and neuroticism acted synergistically, such that people who scored high for both traits were healthier than others. Finally, we found that the combination of high conscientiousness and high neuroticism was also compensatory, such that the wives of men with this combination of personality traits reported better health than other women.

scholarly journals Cognitive Impairment and the Trajectory of Loneliness in Older Adulthood: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study

2021 ◽  
pp. 089826432110195
Author(s):  
Ji Hyun Lee ◽  
Martina Luchetti ◽  
Damaris Aschwanden ◽  
Amanda A. Sesker ◽  
Jason E. Strickhouser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Multilevel Modeling ◽  
Social Contact ◽  
Sociodemographic Factors ◽  
Cognitive Status ◽  
Health And Retirement Study ◽  
Older Adulthood ◽  
Retirement Study ◽  
Cognitive Impairment No Dementia ◽  
Social Loneliness

Objective: To examine whether the trajectory of facets of loneliness—emotional and social—varied by cognitive impairment status in older adulthood. Methods: Data came from the Health and Retirement Study 2008–2018 waves ( N = 15,352). Cognitive impairment was assessed using standard cutoffs for cognitive impairment no dementia (CIND) and dementia. The 11-item UCLA loneliness scale was used to measure emotional and social loneliness. Results: Using multilevel modeling, we found that CIND and dementia status were associated with higher overall, emotional, and social loneliness, controlling for physical health, social contact, and depressive symptoms. The trajectory of loneliness did not vary by cognitive status. There were modest variations by sociodemographic factors. Discussion: Persons with CIND and dementia experience heightened emotional and social loneliness, but cognitive impairment does not contribute to the worsening of loneliness. Older adults' social integration may be maintained early in cognitive impairment.

scholarly journals PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT OF MEMORY, DISABILITY, AND COMORBIDITY IN U.S. ADULTS AGE 65 AND OLDER

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S659-S659
Author(s):  
Nicholas J Bishop ◽  
Kaipeng Wang
Keyword(s):  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Chronic Conditions ◽  
Developmental Process ◽  
Developmental Change ◽  
Survey Design ◽  
Word Recall ◽  
Quadratic Growth ◽  
Mobility Limitations ◽  
Older Adulthood ◽  
Baseline Health

Abstract Cognitive health, physical function, and chronic disease represent interdependent health outcomes that may exert influence on the course of each other’s development. To investigate the association between baseline health in each domain and developmental change across domains, we estimated trajectories of working memory, mobility limitations, and comorbidity among US adults age 65 and older over 18 years. We drew observations from the nationally-representative Health and Retirement Study with an analytic sample consisting of 5,963 adults age 65 and over in 1998. Immediate word recall, an 11-item Nagi scale of mobility limitations, and a summary count of eight doctor-diagnosed chronic conditions were measured biennially from 1998 to 2016. Parallel-process quadratic growth models with individually-varying time scores were used to estimate non-linear trajectories of each health measure, allowing identification of associations between baseline health and developmental change in each health process at both earlier and later stages of older adulthood. All estimates adjusted for covariates, complex survey design, and missing data. Greater baseline immediate word recall was associated with less rapid increase in mobility limitations at earlier ages. More baseline mobility limitations were associated with faster increase in comorbidity at earlier ages. Greater baseline chronic conditions were associated with more rapid increase in mobility limitations at later ages. These results highlight the importance of conceptualizing health among older adults as an interdependent and developmental process and should help clinicians recognize that single-domain health status may influence the progression of other health outcomes at different stages of older adulthood.

scholarly journals DISCORDANT CHRONIC CONDITIONS AND DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS AMONG MIDDLE-AGED AND OLDER COUPLES

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S58-S58
Author(s):  
Courtney A Polenick ◽  
Kira S Birditt ◽  
Angela Turkelson ◽  
Benjamin Bugajski ◽  
Helen C Kales
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Marital Quality ◽  
Chronic Conditions ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Minority Status ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Older Couples ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Retirement Study

Abstract Discordant chronic conditions (i.e., those with competing management requirements) have adverse consequences for well-being, yet little is known about their implications among couples. We evaluated how depressive symptoms are linked to discordant conditions within individuals and between spouses across an 8-year period. The U.S. sample included 1,116 middle-aged and older couples from five waves (2006 – 2014) of the Health and Retirement Study. Longitudinal actor-partner interdependence models controlled for age, minority status, education, depressive symptoms in the previous wave, and each partner’s report of baseline marital quality and number of chronic conditions in each wave. Wives and husbands with their own discordant conditions reported higher depressive symptoms, and this association intensified over time. Over and above this link, husbands had higher depressive symptoms when there were discordant conditions between spouses. Both individual-level and couple-level discordant chronic conditions appear to have enduring implications for depressive symptoms in middle and later life.

scholarly journals Alcohol use and personality change in middle and older adulthood: Findings from the Health and Retirement Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 86 (6) ◽  
pp. 1003-1016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martina Luchetti ◽  
Antonio Terracciano ◽  
Yannick Stephan ◽  
Angelina R. Sutin
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Personality Change ◽  
Health And Retirement Study ◽  
Older Adulthood ◽  
Retirement Study

scholarly journals MIDLIFE HEALTH FACTORS AND LATER-LIFE COGNITIVE DISEASE: RESULTS FROM THE 1998-2014 HEALTH AND RETIREMENT STUDY

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S950-S951
Author(s):  
Benson Wu ◽  
Mohammad Usama Toseef ◽  
Wassim Tarraf ◽  
Hector M González
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Multinomial Logistic Regression ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Cognitive Status ◽  
Older Age ◽  
Fine Motor ◽  
Health And Retirement Study ◽  
Reported Health ◽  
Retirement Study

Abstract Understanding lifecourse determinants of older-age health outcomes is indispensable for resources planning and optimizing public health in light of continued gains in longevity in the US and worldwide. Data increasingly points to midlife health and modifiable risk factors as critical targets for improving older-age health outcomes and mitigating potential cognitive impairment and disease. We used 16-years of biennial data (1998-2014) from the Health and Retirement Study (unweighted-n=6,724), to examine how a comprehensive battery of midlife (age 50-64 years) health measures (disability, physical function, comorbid conditions, and self-reported health) affect cognitive status (using Langa-Weir criteria: Normal, Cognitively Impaired Not Dementia (CIND), and Dementia) and death 16-years later. Additionally, we test for racial/ethnic and gender modifications in the effects of these conditions on the outcomes of interest. We used survey multinomial logistic regression models adjusting for predisposing sociodemographic factors, health-enabling economic characteristics and health behaviors. Relative risk ratios (RRR) across all unadjusted models varied from 1.36-4.84 and 1.36-3.31 for those with dementia and who died in 2014 respectively, suggesting worse health outcomes in midlife are associated with higher dementia/mortality risk in later-life. After covariates-adjustment, comorbidities (RRR=1.15[1.04,1.27]) and Self-reported Health (RRR=1.36[1.22,1.52]) were associated with CIND, and attenuation was particularly pronounced for IADLS (RRR=3.15[2.25,4.43]) and Fine Motor Skills (RRR=1.94[1.46,2.57]) for individuals with dementia in 2014. Neither sex nor race/ethnicity modified these associations. Modifying the midlife health profile of US adults can yield important public health savings and reductions in structural and social health burdens through extenuating the prevalence of dementias and reducing excess mortality.

scholarly journals Associations of Age, Sex, Race/Ethnicity, and Education With 13 Epigenetic Clocks in a Nationally Representative U.S. Sample: The Health and Retirement Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eileen M Crimmins ◽  
Bharat Thyagarajan ◽  
Morgan E Levine ◽  
David R Weir ◽  
Jessica Faul
Keyword(s):  
Dna Methylation ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Health And Retirement Study ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Epigenetic Aging ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Retirement Study

Abstract Background Many DNA methylation-based indicators have been developed as summary measures of epigenetic aging. We examine the associations between 13 epigenetic clocks, including 4 second generation clocks, as well as the links of the clocks to social, demographic, and behavioral factors known to be related to health outcomes: sex, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, obesity, and lifetime smoking pack-years. Methods The Health and Retirement Study is the data source which is a nationally representative sample of Americans over age 50. Assessment of DNA methylation was based on the EPIC chip and epigenetic clocks were developed based on existing literature. Results The clocks vary in the strength of their relationships with age, with each other and with independent variables. Second generation clocks trained on health-related characteristics tend to relate more strongly to the sociodemographic and health behaviors known to be associated with health outcomes in this age group. Conclusions Users of this publicly available data set should be aware that epigenetic clocks vary in their relationships to age and to variables known to be related to the process of health change with age.

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