Compassionate stereotyping of elderly patients by physicians: revising the social contact hypothesis

Departing from previous research on age stereotypes, this study examined degree of contact with elderly patients as a factor affecting age stereotyping by physicians. Included are measures of behavioral intentions as well as more traditional attitudinal measures. A total of 63 rheumatologists completed a brief questionnaire on which they rated a 53- or an 83-year-old target patient on a number of dimensions including psychological adjustment and need for support and information. Patients' age and physicians' degree of contact with elderly patients had few direct effects on physicians' ratings; their interaction, however, yielded a strong and consistent finding: The elderly patient was rated as less adjusted, autonomous, and instrumental and in greater need of support and information by high-contact physicians. These findings suggest that although negative age stereotypes are less prevalent than has previously been indicated, rheumatologists, particularly those who treat elderly patients, may draw on compassionate stereotypes in their care of elderly patients.     

代际支持对中国农村老年人认知功能的影响研究

基于西安交通大学人口研究所2001年在安徽省巢湖市进行的“安徽省老年人生活福利状况”的抽样调查,采用多元线性回归,结合农村实际状况,详细分析经济支持、生活照料和情感支持的代际问双向交流对中国农村老年人认知功能的影响。结果显示,经济支持和情感支持的双向交流对老年人的认知功能有积极影响;老年人生活照料的获得对其认知功能也积极的影响;老年人对子女的生活照料的提供对其认知功能无显著影响。     

Undisturbed upright stance control in the elderly: Part 1. Age-related changes in undisturbed upright stance control

The authors investigated age-related changes in postural control in 33 healthy young adults (18-31 years), 29 seniors (62-75 years), and 22 elderly people (75-96 years). A force platform recorded the results. The horizontal motions of the center of gravity (CGh) and their difference in the plane of support CP - CGv were deduced from the complex center of pressure (CP) trajectories. With fractional Brownian modeling, one can establish that the aging process seems to induce a transition phase in which seniors take more time to initiate the corrective process in the mediolateral (ML) axis than do younger people. The elderly develop a new strategy characterized by the mobilization of higher neuromuscular energy to maintain equilibrium. In the ML axis, the larger displacements could be caused mainly by a hip strategy that could facilitate step initiation. In the anteroposterior (AP) axis, seniors and elderly individuals maintain a relative ability to stabilize their CG into the base of support compared with younger people.     

Gender differences in social support among older adults

The purpose of this study was to determine whether exposure to life stress can help explain gender differences in the use of social support. Findings from a longitudinal study suggest that as the number of stressful life events increase, elderly men and women are equally likely to become more involved in their social network, while gender differences emerge only in response to chronic financial strain. Further analysis indicates that elderly women are more likely than elderly men to report that the support they received increased their feelings of personal control.     

Undisturbed Upright Stance Control in the Elderly: Part 1. Age-Related Changes in Undisturbed Upright Stance Control

The authors investigated age-related changes in postural control in 33 healthy young adults (18-31 years), 29 seniors (62-75 years), and 22 elderly people (75-96 years). A force platform recorded the results. The horizontal motions of the center of gravity (CG_h) and their difference in the plane of support CP - CG_v were deduced from the complex center of pressure (CP) trajectories. With fractional Brownian modeling, one can establish that the aging process seems to induce a transition phase in which seniors take more time to initiate the corrective process in the mediolateral (ML) axis than do younger people. The elderly develop a new strategy characterized by the mobilization of higher neuromuscular energy to maintain equilibrium. In the ML axis, the larger displacements could be caused mainly by a hip strategy that could facilitate step initiation. In the anteroposterior (AP) axis, seniors and elderly individuals maintain a relative ability to stabilize their CG into the base of support compared with younger people.     

Challenging horizontal movement of the body during sit-to-stand: impact on stability in the young and elderly

There are 3 significant challenges to sit-to-stand: (a) bringing the center of mass forward, (b) vertically raising the center of mass from the sitting to standing position, and (c) transition from a relatively large and stable base of support in sitting to a considerably smaller base of support when standing. The authors explored the challenges to stability control following sit-to-stand when the requirement for horizontal movement of the center of mass was influenced by foot position and their potential effect on the preceding phases of sit-to-stand. Eleven healthy young and 11 healthy elderly individuals performed the sit-to-stand with their feet further away and closer to the chair. Kinetic and kinematic data were recorded. Regardless of foot position, challenges in stability were greater in elderly participants than young participants despite their similar movement time and shear forces. The greater instability in elderly participants, despite their comparable movement characteristics, emphasizes the importance of stability control following sit-to-stand performance. For both young and elderly participants, the sit-to-stand duration and the shear forces were greater in the far condition. However, foot position did not affect the stability measures (i.e., duration of the stabilization phase and the total center of pressure path during the 1st second of the stabilization phase).     

A longitudinal study of the performance of the elderly and young on the Tower of Hanoi puzzle and Rey recall

Normal performance on the Tower of Hanoi puzzle by amnesic patients has been taken as support for viewing this problem solving task as having a nondeclarative memory component. Individuals in each decade of life between the 20s and 80s were asked to solve this puzzle four times in four sessions with intersession intervals from 1 to 7 days (Davis & Keller, 1998). Participants in their 70s and 80s were significantly impaired compared to participants in their 20s and 30s. The elderly were also significantly impaired on five immediate trials of a 15 words verbal recall test. Participants were readministered these tests an average of 6.6 years later for the elderly (n = 12) and 7.7 years later for the young (n = 11). For the Tower of Hanoi, the performance of the elderly, but not the young individuals, was significantly poorer than their original performance. For the verbal recall test, no significant change over time was detected for the young or elderly participants. These findings support the view that some nondeclarative and/or problem solving tasks demonstrate as great or greater decline with age than some declarative tasks.     

控制感与老年人生命意义：自我认同和政策支持的作用

本研究探讨了控制感、自我认同、对政策支持的感知等因素如何影响老年人的生命意义感。通过对300多名来自北京、香港和台北的老年人的调查,发现控制感和政策支持对老年人生命意义感的影响显着,二者不仅主效应显着,同时存在交互作用。进一步的分析还发现：政策支持在控制感与生命意义感的关系中起调节作用——高政策支持感增强了控制对生命意义感的正向作用;自我认同在控制感与生命意义感的关系中起部分中介作用。结果对积极应对老龄化问题与增进老年人身心健康有重要的理论和现实意义。     

Fine-tuning theory to the needs of the world: Responding to Heller et al.

Comments on the Heller et al. telephone intervention with isolated elderly women are presented. The importance of addressing contextual factors involved in assessments of social support in community samples is discussed. Comparisons are drawn between the assessment of social support among an elderly sample and an assessment of social support among a sample of chronic illness patients. Three key issues are discussed: (a) Is a little support better than no support and is a little all we really need? (b) Is family support more important than friend support, at least to this population? (c) Can long-term relationships be replaced?     

Formant frequency characteristics of children, young adult, and aged female speakers

Previous literature indicates that a difference may exist between formant frequencies (F1 and F2) of children, young adult, and elderly speakers. The purpose of this study was to compare F1 and F2 of 3 young, 6 young adult, and 3 elderly female speakers for the /i/, /ae/, /u/, and /a/ vowels. Analysis indicates a trend towards vowel reduction across the life span. These findings support previous research regarding age-associated acoustic changes as well as support for the possible anatomical and physiological alterations which may influence such changes.     

Personality Changes in the Old–Old: A Longitudinal Study

Although many studies have examined the issue of personality stability in early and middle adulthood, few have explored the limits of personality stability in the very old, who are often confronted with major changes in their health and life circumstances which can severely impact adaptive behavior. We conducted a longitudinal study of 74 elderly women with a mean age of 80. They were assessed on the personality traits of Neuroticism, Extroversion, and Openness. Although multiple regression analyses revealed moderate stability on all 3 traits, their stability was found to be influenced by negative changes in life circumstances. For example, decreased social support and increased unmet needs were associated with more Neuroticism. Less Extroversion was associated with poorer health and greater psychosocial needs. The trait of Openness was very stable and was the least affected by life events. These contradictory findings are reconciled by considering personality development within an interaction framework.     

Network Size, Social Support and Happiness in Later Life: A Comparative Study of Beijing and Hong Kong

This study investigates how happiness of elderly Chinese is related to their social support networks, based on survey data collected in 2000 from Beijing and Hong Kong. These two Chinese cities share a common cultural heritage but differ in social-economic structure. It was found that in both cities, income is more significant than gender and education in determining happiness, but it is less important than personal network size and particularly perceived social support. More importantly, findings from the two cites consistently lend support to the thesis that older persons with a larger network are happier and that social support plays a mediating role. Controlling for social-demographic factors does not change this pattern of relationships. There are, however, differences between the two cities. Beijing’s elderly were found to be happier and have larger social networks than Hong Kong’s elderly. Also, our explanatory models consistently account for less variance in the happiness of older persons in Beijing. These findings are probably due to the differences between socialist Beijing and capitalist Hong Kong in degrees of modernization and urbanization and in social organization of work and community life.     

Definition of Financial Abuse: A Culture-Centered Construct among Korean Elders

One of the critical issues in addressing financial abuse in Korea is the absence of an appropriate definition voiced by the elderly. This study is designed to explore how Korean elders define financial abuse in given social and cultural contexts. Face-to-face, in-depth interviews were conducted with 124 elders, aged 60 to 79, residing in Korea. The results of qualitative data analysis using grounded theory revealed that a vast majorty of Korean elderly respondents defined financial abuse as lack of provision of financial support to elder parents, and a small portion of respondents defined it as financial exploitation by adult children. The definition of financial abuse reflects cultural beliefs based on filial piety about financial expectations within the parent–child relationship. Education on financial abuse for both elders and their adult children and establishment of income support programs are urgently needed efforts to increase the financial well-being of elderly Koreans.     

“I don’t want to be an artificial man”: Narrative reconstruction of sexuality among prostate cancer survivors

After interviewing prostate cancer support group members, I use narrative analysis to examine survivors’ post-illness stories of changes in sexual activity and identity. The main events in the narratives were the choice of a treatment option and the post-treatment changes in survivors’ sex lives, whether described as the end of the sex life or the beginning of a modified one. Survivors characterized their wives as uninterested in sex and seldom described support group peers as helpful sources of sex-related information. The value of health took precedence over the desire for sex among men who experienced erectile dysfunction. My observations suggest implications related to (a) masculine identity, (b) sex among the elderly, (c) the social construction of sexuality, (d) defining and redefining sexuality, (e) physician-patient interaction, (f) sex talk among social support group members, and (g) the apparent clash between the values of sex and health.     

Sex and birth order differences in filial behavior

Personal interviews were conducted with 499 children of elderly white widows. Results showed no birth order differences in the provision of assistance to the elderly; however, there were significant sex differences. Daughters performed more caretaking activities and social services and provided more emotional support for their mothers than did sons. Sons had a tendency, though insignificant, to provide more advisory assistance to their mothers. After adjusting for situational differences between daughters and sons a sex difference remained only for the provision of emotional support.     

Intentional binding as a marker of agency across the lifespan

The feeling of control over actions and their external effects is known as Sense of Agency (SoAg). People usually have a distinctive SoAg for events caused by their own actions. However, if the agent is a child or an older person, this feeling of being responsible for the consequences of an action may differ from what an adult would feel. The idea would be that children and elderly may have a reduced SoAg since their frontal lobes are developing or have started to loose their efficiency. The aim of this study was to elucidate whether the SoAg changes across lifespan, using the Intentional Binding (i.e., the temporal attraction between a voluntary action and its sensory consequence) as implicit measure. Data show that children and elderly are characterized by a reduced SoAg as compared to adults. These findings provide a fundamental step in the characterization of SoAg dynamics throughout individuals’ lifetime.     

老年人重要社会支持的特点及其与老化态度的关系

采用重要他人和老化态度问卷测查了441名老年人的社会支持和老化态度情况,并且从支持的数量和质量角度以及实际支持和期望支持的角度细致考察了社会支持与老化态度的关系。结果表明：（1）老年人的支持来源符合社会支持层级模式;（2）性别、年龄及受教育水平对老年人社会支持有显著影响;（3）老年人从重要他人那里获得的实际社会支持的质量越高,老化态度越积极。     

城市老年人社会支持利用度研究

老年人社会支持利用度反映其应对负性生活事件的自我保护意识的一方面．诸多因素制约着老年人运用社会所提供的客观支持的自觉程度。本文采用《社会支持利用度问卷》对上海市社区老人进行了调查研究,结果表明：（1）文化程度、年龄、健康状况是影响城市老年人社会支持利用度的重要因素．文化程度较高、相对低年龄以及健康状况较好的老人其自觉运用社会支持的程度较高。（2）主动寻求社会支持反映一种积极应对方式。     

Age and gender differences in and personality correlates of loneliness in different relationships

This study examined age and gender differences in and personality correlates of loneliness in different relationships. Loneliness was measured in three groups of subjects (college men, college women, and elderly women) with the Differential Loneliness Scale which assesses dissatisfaction with four types of relationships (Family, Larger Groups, Friendships, and Romantic/Sexual). Age and gender differences were significant. Compared to elderly women, college women expressed more dissatisfaction with their Family and Large Group relationships. Compared to college women, elderly women expressed more dissatisfaction with their Friendships and Romantic/Sexual relationships. With regard to gender differences, college men expressed more dissatisfaction with Family, Large Group, and Friendship relationships than college women. For each subject group, dissatisfaction scores were correlated with health status, locus of control, social support, depression, and self-consciousness. Correlations varied with type of relationship as well as with age and gender. The group differences and the varying patterns of correlations support the use of a multidimensional approach to the study of loneliness. Results are discussed in terms of previous research and future investigations.