Ageism in informal care network members of older women.

OBJECTIVES: Negative attitudes toward aging are common among formal healthcare providers, but have been infrequently assessed among informal caregivers providing assistance to older adults. The current study sought to identify factors associated with ageism toward older women. DESIGN: Multivariate hierarchical linear regression model. SETTING: Lower-income neighborhoods in an urban setting in the Midwestern USA. PARTICIPANTS: 144 care network members of White and African American women aged ≥ 65 years. MEASUREMENTS: Age Group Evaluation and Description (AGED) Inventory assessed attitudes toward older women; CES-D scale measured depressive symptoms; Intergenerational Affectional Solidarity Scale assessed relationship closeness. RESULTS: In bivariate analyses, African American caregivers endorsed more positive attitudes toward older women. In the multivariate regression model, attitudes toward older women were associated with care recipient health (ß = 0.18, p < 0.05) and relationship closeness with the care recipient (ß = 0.23, p < 0.05). However, these associations were fully mediated by care recipient-specific attitude ratings by the care network member. The association between person-specific attitudes and general attitudes was uniquely directional. CONCLUSIONS: Findings from the present study are consistent with past research suggesting that 'ageism' may, at least in part, derive from bias against perceived poor health. Further, our findings of an association between attitude toward the care recipient and attitudes toward older women in general provide support for cognitive psychology theory which emphasizes the role of personal experience in stereotype formation through the availability heuristic. The current study underlines the necessity for development of interventions to address ageism in informal caregivers.

Does loneliness 'get under the skin'? Associations of loneliness with subsequent change in inflammatory and metabolic markers.

Objectives: To expand existing knowledge about the associations of late-life loneliness with subsequent change in inflammation as well as with metabolic dysregulation, using national representative longitudinal data. The current analysis also explores age, gender, and race differences in these pre-disease pathways. Method: The analysis is based on data from the 2005-06 and 2010-11 waves of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP)-a longitudinal survey conducted among a representative sample of community-dwelling Americans aged 57-85. Adjusted logistic regression models were used to examine associations of loneliness with changes in C-reactive protein (CRP), Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), Body Mass Index (BMI), Waist Circumference (WC), and metabolic burden. Results: Loneliness was found to be associated with a change for the worse in most of the metabolic bio-markers. Specifically, lonely older adults had 39%-71% higher odds of developing prospective risk levels in three out of the four metabolic bio-markers that were measured: HbA1c, BMI, and metabolic burden. Salient differences by race were found in this regard. Whereas loneliness was not significantly associated with HbA1c risk levels and BMI among the Whites, the prospective risk of high HbA1c was more than five times greater and the risk of high BMI scores was three times greater among Hispanics who experienced loneliness than among the not-lonely Hispanic group. Conclusions: The robust impact of loneliness on prospective changes for the worse in levels of various metabolic bio-markers that are closely associated with morbidity highlights the need for prevention, coping with, and reducing loneliness.

Distinct eye movements for different cognitive processes as expressed in the face recognition task.

Contemporary research literature indicates that eye movements during the learning and testing phases can predict and affect future recognition processes. Nevertheless, only partial information exists regarding eye movements in the various components of recognition processes: Hits, Correct rejections, Misses and False Alarms (FA). In an attempt to address this issue, participants in this study viewed human faces in a yes/no recognition memory paradigm. They were divided into two groups - one group that carried out the testing phase immediately after the learning phase (n = 30) and another group with a 15-minute delay between phases (n = 28). The results showed that the Immediate group had a lower FA rate than the Delay group, and that no Hit rate differences were observed between the two groups. Eye movements differed between the recognition processes in the learning and the testing phases, and this pattern interacted with the group type. Hence, eye movement measures seem to track memory accuracy during both learning and testing phases and this pattern also interacts with the length of delay between learning and testing. This pattern of results suggests that eye movements are indicative of present and future recognition processes.