Younger Than Ever? Subjective Age Is Becoming Younger and Remains More Stable in Middle-Age and Older Adults Today.

Little is known about historical shifts in subjective age (i.e., how old individuals feel). Moving beyond the very few time-lagged cross-sectional cohort comparisons, we examined historical shifts in within-person trajectories of subjective age from midlife to advanced old age. We used cohort-comparative longitudinal data from middle-age and older adults in the German Ageing Survey (N = 14,928; ~50% female) who lived in Germany and were between 40 and 85 years old when entering the study. They provided up to seven observations over 24 years. Results revealed that being born later in historical time is associated with feeling younger by 2% every birth-year decade and with less intraindividual change toward an older subjective age. Women reported feeling younger than men; this gender gap widened across cohorts. The association of higher education with younger subjective age became weaker across cohorts. Potential reasons for the subjective-rejuvenation effect across cohorts are discussed.

Today's Older Adults Are Cognitively Fitter Than Older Adults Were 20 Years Ago, but When and How They Decline Is No Different Than in the Past.

History-graded increases in older adults' levels of cognitive performance are well documented, but little is known about historical shifts in within-person change: cognitive decline and onset of decline. We combined harmonized perceptual-motor speed data from independent samples recruited in 1990 and 2010 to obtain 2,008 age-matched longitudinal observations (M = 78 years, 50% women) from 228 participants in the Berlin Aging Study (BASE) and 583 participants in the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II). We used nonlinear growth models that orthogonalized within- and between-person age effects and controlled for retest effects. At age 78, the later-born BASE-II cohort substantially outperformed the earlier-born BASE cohort (d = 1.20; 25 years of age difference). Age trajectories, however, were parallel, and there was no evidence of cohort differences in the amount or rate of decline and the onset of decline. Cognitive functioning has shifted to higher levels, but cognitive decline in old age appears to proceed similarly as it did two decades ago.

Diabetes type 2 in the Berlin Aging Study II: Cross-sectional and longitudinal data on prevalence, incidence and severity over on average seven years of follow-up.

AIMS: Aim of the current study was to describe the prevalence, incidence, and severity of diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2D) in a cohort of older men and women aged 60 years and above over the course of on average 7 years, since longitudinal data on this topic are scarce for this age group in Germany. METHODS: Baseline data of 1671 participants of the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II; 68.8 ± 3.7 years) and follow-up data assessed 7.4 ± 1.5 years later were analysed. The BASE-II is an exploratory, observational study on cross-sectional and longitudinal data of an older population. T2D was diagnosed based on self-report, antidiabetic medication use and laboratory parameters. T2D severity was determined by the diabetes complications severity index (DCSI). Prognostic capacity of laboratory parameters was evaluated. RESULTS: The proportion of participants with T2D increased from 12.9% (37.3% women) at baseline to 17.1% (41.1% women) with 74 incident cases and 22.2% not being aware of the disease at follow-up. The incidence rate is 10.7 new T2D diagnoses per 1000 person-years. More than half of the 41 newly identified incident T2D cases were diagnosed solely by the 2 h-plasma glucose test (OGTT) and diagnosis based on OGTT as the only criterion among incident cases was found more frequently in women (p = 0.028). T2D severity expressed by the DCSI significantly increased from baseline to follow-up (mean DCSI 1.1 ± 1.2 vs. 2.0 ± 1.8; range 0-5 vs. 0-6). Cardiovascular complications had the highest impact (43.2% at baseline and 67.6% at follow-up). CONCLUSIONS: A comprehensive picture of T2D with respect to prevalence, incidence, and severity in older people of the Berlin Aging Study II is provided.

Beyond Big Five trait domains: Stability and change in personality facets across midlife and old age.

OBJECTIVE: Accumulated evidence indicates both stable and malleable parts of inter-individual differences in the broad Big Five domains. Less is known, however, about stability and change at the more diversified facet level. With the current study, we fill this gap by investigating personality stability and change across midlife and old age. METHOD: We apply local structural equation measurement models and second-order growth curve models to four waves of data obtained with the full NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) collected over 11 years from 1667 adults (Mage  = 62.69 years, SDage  = 15.62, 55% female) who participated in the Seattle Longitudinal Study. RESULTS: Measurement invariance analyses indicated that the psychometric properties of the NEO-PI-R facets are comparable across time and age. Results revealed substantial rank-order stabilities across all facets, yet the exact pattern varied strongly between facets of the same trait and across traits. Mean-level change of facets from midlife to old age largely mirrored the mean-level change observed for the broader traits. CONCLUSION: We discuss conceptual implications and argue that in the face of overall stability across midlife and old age, changes in the rank-ordering of people reveals a much more complex and diverse pattern of development than analyses at the trait level suggest.

Differentiating Sex and Gender Among Older Men and Women.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to paradigmatically show the development of a gender score that can be used as either an adjustment or a matching variable to separate the effects of gender versus biological sex in a sample of older adults. METHODS: Our sample comprised 1100 participants from the Berlin Aging Study II (52% women, mean [standard deviation] age = 75.6 [3.8] years). The gender score included a multitude of gender-related variables and was constructed via logistic regression. In models of health outcomes, it was used as an adjustment variable in regression analyses as well as a matching variable to match older men and women according to their gender. RESULTS: Matching by gender substantially reduced sample size to n = 340. Analyses (either adjusting for gender or matching men and women according to gender) revealed that female sex was independently associated with lower grip strength (B = -14.47, 95% confidence interval [CI] = -15.51 to -13.44), better cognitive performance (B = 3.47, 95% CI = 1.94 to 5.0), higher pulse wave velocity (B = 0.19, 95% CI = 0.06 to 0.31), lower body mass index (B = -0.97, 95% CI = -1.74 to -0.21), and lower rates of metabolic syndrome (odds ratio = 0.53, 95% CI = 0.37 to 0.77). In addition, both sex and gender were independently associated with cognitive performance and depression. CONCLUSIONS: Calculating a gender score allows for the inclusion of a large number of variables, creating parsimonious models that are adaptable to different data sets and alternative gender definitions. Depending on the research question and the sample properties, the gender score can be used as either an adjustment or a matching variable.Trial Registration: DRKS-Deutsches Register Klinischer Studien (Study ID: DRKS00016157).

Acting Like a Baby Boomer? Birth-Cohort Differences in Adults' Personality Trajectories During the Last Half a Century.

Society and developmental theory generally assume that there are wide generational differences in personality. Yet evidence showing historical change in the levels of adult Big Five traits is scarce and particularly so for developmental change. We tracked adult trajectories of personality in 4,732 participants (age: M = 52.93 years, SD = 16.69; 53% female) from the Seattle Longitudinal Study (born 1883-1976) across 50 years. Multilevel models revealed evidence for historical change in personality: At age 56, later-born cohorts exhibited lower levels of maturity-related traits (agreeableness and neuroticism) and higher levels of agency-related traits (extraversion and openness) than earlier-born cohorts. Historical changes in agreeableness and neuroticism were more pronounced among young adults, but changes in openness were less pronounced. Cohort differences in change were rare and were observed only for agreeableness; within-person increases were more pronounced among later-born cohorts. Our results yield the first evidence for historical change in the Big Five across adulthood and point to the roles of delayed social-investment and maturity effects.

Sex Differences in Characteristics Associated with Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use and Associations with Functional Capacity in Older Participants of the Berlin Aging Study II.

INTRODUCTION: Medication safety is a vital aim in older adults' pharmacotherapy. Increased morbidity and vulnerability require particularly careful prescribing. Beneath avoiding unnecessary polypharmacy and prescribing omissions, physicians have to be aware of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) and related outcomes to optimize older adults' drug therapy, and to reduce adverse drug events. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to identify participants characteristics associated with PIM use and associations of PIM use with functional capacity with a focus on sex differences. METHODS: Multivariable logistic regression analyses of cross-sectional Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II) data (N = 1,382, median age 69 years, interquartile range 67-71, 51.3% women) were performed with PIM classification according to the EU(7)-PIM list. RESULTS: In the overall study population, higher education was associated with lower odds of PIM use (odds ratio [OR] 0.93, confidence interval [CI] 95% 0.87-0.99, p = 0.017). Falls (OR 1.53, CI 95% 1.08-2.17, p = 0.016), frailty/prefrailty (OR 1.68, 1.17-2.41, p = 0.005), and depression (OR 2.12, CI 95% 1.32-3.41, p = 0.002) were associated with increased odds of PIM use. A better nutritional status was associated with lower odds of PIM use (OR 0.88, CI 95% 0.81-0.97, p = 0.008). In the sex-stratified analysis, higher education was associated with lower odds of PIM use in men (OR 0.90, CI 95% 0.82-0.99, p = 0.032). Frailty/prefrailty was associated with increased odds of PIM use in men (OR 2.04, CI 95% 1.18-3.54, p = 0.011) and a better nutritional status was associated with lower odds of PIM use in men (OR 0.83, CI 95% 0.72-0.96, p = 0.011). Falls in the past 12 months were related to an increased prevalence of PIM use in women (OR 1.74, CI 95% 1.10-2.75, p = 0.019). Depression was associated with a higher prevalence of PIM use in both men (OR 2.74, CI 95% 1.20-6.24, p = 0.016) and women (OR 2.06, CI 95% 1.14-3.71, p = 0.017). We did not detect sex differences regarding the overall use of drugs with anticholinergic effects, but more men than women used PIMs referring to the cardiovascular system (p = 0.036), while more women than men used PIMs referring to the genitourinary system and sex hormones (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: We found similarities, but also differences between men and women as to the associations between PIM use and participants' characteristics and functional capacity assessments. The association of lower education with PIM use may suggest that physicians' prescribing behavior is modified by patient education, a relationship that could evolve from more critical attitudes of educated patients towards medication use. We conclude that sex differences in associations of PIM use with functional capacities might be partly attributable to sex differences in drug classes used, but not with regard to anticholinergics, as these are used to a similar extent in men and women in the cohort studied here.

Location, Location, Location: The Role of Objective Neighborhood Characteristics for Perceptions of Control.

INTRODUCTION: Control beliefs can protect against age-related declines in functioning. It is unclear whether neighborhood characteristics shape how much control people perceive over their life. This article studies associations of neighborhood characteristics with control beliefs of residents of a diverse metropolitan area (Berlin, Germany). METHODS: We combine self-report data about perceptions of control obtained from participants in the Berlin Aging Study II (N = 507, 60-87 years, 51% women) with multisource geo-referenced indicators of neighborhood characteristics using linear regression models. RESULTS: Findings indicate that objective neighborhood characteristics (i.e., unemployment rate) are indeed tied to perceptions of control, in particular, how much control participants feel others have over their lives. Including neighborhood characteristics in part doubled the amount of explained variance compared with a reference model covarying for demographic characteristics only (from R2 = 0.017 to R2 = 0.030 for internal control beliefs; R2 = 0.056 to R2 = 0.102 for external control beliefs in chance; R2 = 0.006 to R2 = 0.030 for external control beliefs in powerful others). DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: Findings highlight the importance of access to neighborhood resources for control beliefs across old age and can inform interventions to build up neighborhood characteristics which might be especially helpful in residential areas with high unemployment.

Health sensitivity in the daily lives of younger and older adults: correlates and longer-term change in health.

OBJECTIVES: How susceptible older adults' affect is to fluctuations in health (i.e., health sensitivity) indicates how well they adapt to everyday health challenges. Theory and evidence are inconsistent as to whether older adults are more or less health sensitive than younger adults. The role of health burden as correlate and outcome of health sensitivity and age differences therein is also unclear. We thus move the study of health sensitivity ahead from longitudinal inquiry to examine age differences, the role of health burden, and long-term implications of daily life health sensitivitMethods: We use data from COGITO where 101 younger adults (Mage = 25; range = 20-31) and 103 older adults (Mage = 71; range = 65-80) gave daily reports of physical symptoms and positive and negative affect during a ∼100-day micro-longitudinal phase, as well as reports of trait-level health two years before and after. RESULTS: Extending earlier reports, older age and higher health burden were (independently) associated with lower health sensitivity in positive but not negative affect. Health sensitivity was unrelated to long-term changes in health burden. CONCLUSION: We take our findings to indicate successful aging (older adults are not more emotionally vulnerable to health issues) and discuss habituation as a process underlying how age and health burden may reduce health sensitivity.

Loneliness in Myanmar's older population: A mixed-methods investigation.

OBJECTIVES: Little is known about loneliness in lower- and middle-income countries. This study investigates loneliness in the older population of Myanmar using a mixed-methods approach. METHODS: To identify predictors of loneliness, hierarchical regression models were used to analyze data from the Myanmar Aging Survey 2012 (N = 3,618, 57% women). In a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design, quantitative data were integrated with qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with older adults in Myanmar in 2019. RESULTS: The prevalence of loneliness varied by between-person characteristics. Health impairments, lower income, being widowed, not having children, and living with fewer household members were each associated with loneliness. Qualitative findings suggested that the physical presence of family members was especially protective against loneliness. Religion had mixed associations with loneliness, depending on the type of religious practice, demographic characteristics, health status, and community engagement. DISCUSSION: The findings contribute to a better understanding of individuals' experiences of loneliness and may inform the design of interventions to prevent loneliness in Myanmar and globally.

Dementia care and the role of guideline adherence in primary care: cross-sectional findings from the DemTab study.

BACKGROUND: General practitioners (GPs) play a key role in the care of people with dementia (PwD). However, the role of the German Dementia Guideline in primary care remains unclear. The main objective of the present study was to examine the role of guideline-based dementia care in general practices. METHODS: A cross-sectional analysis of data obtained from the DemTab study was conducted. Descriptive analyses of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics for GPs (N = 28) and PwD (N = 91) were conducted. Adherence to the German Dementia Guideline of GPs was measured at the level of PwD. Linear Mixed Models were used to analyze the associations between adherence to the German Dementia Guideline and GP factors at individual (age, years of experience as a GP, frequency of utilization of guideline, perceived usefulness of guideline) and structural (type of practice, total number of patients seen by a participating GP, and total number of PwD seen by a participating GP) levels as well as between adherence to the German Dementia Guideline and PwD's quality of life. RESULTS: Self-reported overall adherence of GPs was on average 71% (SD = 19.4, range: 25-100). Adherence to specific recommendations varied widely (from 19.2 to 95.3%) and the majority of GPs (79.1%) reported the guideline as only partially or somewhat helpful. Further, we found lower adherence to be significantly associated with higher numbers of patients (γ10 = - 5.58, CI = - 10.97, - 0.19, p = .04). No association between adherence to the guideline and PwD's quality of life was found (γ10 = -.86, CI = - 4.18, 2.47, p = .61). CONCLUSION: The present study examined the role of adherence to the German Dementia Guideline recommendations in primary care. Overall, GPs reported high levels of adherence. However, major differences across guideline recommendations were found. Findings highlight the importance of guidelines for the provision of care. Dementia guidelines for GPs need to be better tailored and addressed. Further, structural changes such as more time for PwD may contribute to a sustainable change of dementia care in primary care. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The DemTab trial was prospectively registered with the ISRCTN registry (Trial registration number: ISRCTN15854413 ). Registered 01 April 2019.

Cortisol Synchrony in Older Couples: Daily Socioemotional Correlates and Interpersonal Differences.

OBJECTIVE: Social relationships can have positive and negative influences, and these associations are particularly pronounced in old age. This study focuses on everyday interpersonal physiological dynamics (cortisol synchrony) in older couples and investigates its associations with partner presence, positive daily partner interactions, and empathy. METHODS: We conducted coordinated multilevel analyses using data from two samples of older couples from Vancouver, Canada, and Berlin, Germany (study 1: n = 85 couples aged 60-87 years; study 2: n = 77 couples aged 66-85 years), who completed questionnaires and provided salivary cortisol samples five to seven times daily for 7 days. RESULTS: Significant dyadic covariation in cortisol (synchrony) was present across studies (study 1/2: b = 0.04/0.03, p < .001/.001). Partner presence was only associated with greater cortisol synchrony in study 1 (b = 0.06, p = .003) but not in study 2 (b = 0.02, p = .187). Cortisol synchrony was higher when partners reported prior positive socioemotional partner interactions (study 1: b = 0.09, p = .005; study 2: b = 0.04, p = .005). There was no statistically significant association between cortisol synchrony and empathic concern (b = 0.01, p = .590) or perspective taking (b = 0.02, p = .065). CONCLUSIONS: Moments of social bonding are intertwined with physiological synchrony in everyday life. The implications of potential repeated transmission of stress in the context of high synchrony for individual health and relationship functioning warrant further investigation.

Future time perspective: Dimensions of opportunities, life, and time are differentially associated with physical health, cognitive functioning, and well-being in old age.

Objective: The present study investigated the multidimensional nature of the future time perspective scale and dimension-specific associations with measures of physical health, cognitive functioning, and well-being.Method: Using data from the Berlin Aging Study II (N = 1,038, M age = 71 years, range = 61-88 years, 52% women), different models of future time perspective were compared using confirmatory factor analyses, and the best-fitting model was then used to explore dimension-specific associations with physical health, cognitive functioning, and well-being measures.Results: A model of future time perspective composed of a focus on opportunities, a focus on life, and a focus on time was found to have the best fit. An extended focus on opportunities was associated with stronger grip strength, more accurate memory, as well as higher life satisfaction and positive affect. An extended focus on time was associated with less accurate memory, lower negative affect, and greater life satisfaction. A focus on life was unrelated to study measures.Discussion: Findings suggest that future time perspective is multidimensional and that these dimensions are differentially associated with physical health, cognitive functioning, and well-being in old age.

The Subjective Health Horizon Questionnaire (SHH-Q): Assessing Future Time Perspectives for Facets of an Active Lifestyle.

BACKGROUND: A wider subjective time horizon is assumed to be positively associated with longevity and vitality. In particular, a lifestyle with exposure to novel and varied information is considered beneficial for healthy cognitive aging. At present, measures that specifically assess individuals' perceived temporal extension to engage in active lifestyles in the future are not available. OBJECTIVES: We introduce and validate a new self-report measure, the Subjective Health Horizon Questionnaire (SHH-Q). The SHH-Q assesses individuals' future time perspectives in relation to four interrelated but distinct lifestyle dimensions: (1) novelty-oriented exploration (Novelty), (2) bodily fitness (Body), (3) work goals (Work), and (4) goals in life (Life Goals). The present study aims at: (a) validating the hypothesized factor structure of the SHH-Q, according to which the SHH-Q consists of four interrelated but distinct subscales, and (b) testing the hypothesis that the Novelty and Body subscales of the SHH-Q show positive and selective associations with markers of cognition and somatic health, respectively. METHODS: Using structural equation modeling, we analyzed data from 1,371 healthy individuals (51% women) with a mean age of 70.1 years (SD = 3.6) who participated in the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II) and completed the SHH-Q. RESULTS: As predicted, the SHH-Q formed four correlated but distinct subscales: (1) Novelty, (2) Body, (3) Work, and (4) Life Goals. Greater self-reported future novelty orientation was associated with higher current memory performance, and greater future expectations regarding bodily fitness with better current metabolic status. CONCLUSION: The SHH-Q reliably assesses individual differences in four distinct dimensions of future time perspective. Two of these dimensions, Novelty and Body, show differential associations with cognitive status and somatic health. The SHH-Q may serve as a tool to assess how different facets of future time perspective relate to somatic health, cognition, motivation, and affect, and may help to identify the socioeconomic and individual antecedents, correlates, and consequences of an active lifestyle.

Cohort Differences in Psychosocial Function over 20 Years: Current Older Adults Feel Less Lonely and Less Dependent on External Circumstances.

BACKGROUND: Lifespan psychological and life course sociological perspectives indicate that individual development is shaped by social and historical circumstances. Increases in fluid cognitive performance over the last century are well documented and researchers have begun examining historical trends in personality and subjective well-being in old age. Relatively less is known about secular changes in other key components of psychosocial function among older adults. OBJECTIVE: In the present study, we examined cohort differences in key components of psychosocial function, including subjective age, control beliefs, and perceived social integration, as indicated by loneliness and availability of very close others. METHODS: We compared data obtained 20 years apart in the Berlin Aging Study (in 1990-1993) and the Berlin Aging Study II (in 2013-2014) and identified case-matched cohort groups based on age, gender, cohort-normed education, and marital or partner status (n = 153 in each cohort, mean age = 75 years). In follow-up analyses, we controlled for having lived in former East versus West Germany, physical diseases, cohort-normed household income, cognitive performance, and the presence of a religious affiliation. RESULTS: Consistently across analyses, we found that, relative to the earlier-born BASE cohort (year of birth: mean = 1916; SD = 3.38 years; range = 1901-1922), participants in the BASE-II sample (year of birth: mean = 1939; SD = 3.22 years; range = 1925-1949) reported lower levels of external control beliefs (d = -1.01) and loneliness (d = -0.63). Cohorts did not differ in subjective age, availability of very close others, and internal control beliefs. CONCLUSION: Taken together, our findings suggest that some aspects of psychosocial function of older adults have improved across the two recent decades. We discuss the possible role of sociocultural factors that might have led to the observed set of cohort differences.

Historical change in trajectories of loneliness in old age: Older adults today are less lonely, but do not differ in their age trajectories.

To check claims of a "loneliness epidemic," we examined whether current cohorts of older adults report higher levels and/or steeper age-related increases in loneliness than earlier-born peers. Specifically, we used 1,068 age-matched longitudinal reports (Mage observations = 79 years, 49% women) of loneliness provided by independent samples recruited in the German city of Berlin in 1990 and 2010, n = 257 participants in the Berlin Aging Study (BASE) and n = 383 participants in Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II). Using multilevel models that orthogonalize between-person and within-person age effects, we examined how responses to items from the UCLA Loneliness Scale provided by observation-matched cohorts differed with age and across cohorts, and if those differences might be explained by a variety of individual factors. Results revealed that at age 79, the later-born BASE-II cohort reported substantially lower levels of loneliness than the earlier-born BASE cohort (d = -0.84), with cohort differences accounting for more than 14% of the variance in loneliness. Age trajectories, however, were parallel without evidence of cohort differences in rates of within-person age-related changes in loneliness. Differences in gender, education, cognitive functioning, and external control beliefs accounted for the lion's share of cohort-related differences in levels of loneliness. Results show that loneliness among older adults has shifted to markedly lower levels today, but the rate at which loneliness increases with age proceeds similarly as 2 decades ago. Future studies should investigate how psychosocial functioning across the life course is progressing in different sociohistorical contexts and in other age groups, such as younger and middle-aged adults. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

"What's yours is mine": Partners' everyday emotional experiences and cortisol in older adult couples.

The existing literature consistently finds that emotional experiences and cortisol secretion are linked at the within-person level. Further, relationship partners tend to covary in emotional experience, and in cortisol secretion. However, we are only beginning to understand whether and how an individuals' emotions are linked to their relationship partners' cortisol secretion. In this project, we harmonized data from three intensive measurement studies originating from Canada and Germany to investigate the daily dynamics of emotions and cortisol within 321 older adult couples (age range=56-87 years). Three-level multilevel models accounted for the nested structure of the data (repeated assessments within individuals within couples). Actor-Partner Interdependence Models were used to examine the effect of own emotional experiences (actor effects) and partner emotional experiences (partner effects) on momentary and daily cortisol secretion. Adjusting for age, sex, education, comorbidities, assay version, diurnal cortisol rhythm, time spent together, medication, and time-varying behaviors that may increase cortisol secretion, results suggest that higher relationship partner's positive emotions are linked with lower momentary cortisol and total daily cortisol. Further, this association was stronger for older participants and those who reported higher relationship satisfaction. We did not find within-couple links between negative emotions and cortisol. Overall, our results suggest that one's relationship partner's positive emotional experience may be a protective factor for their physiological responding, and that these more fleeting and day-to-day fluctuations may accumulate over time, contributing to overall relationship satisfaction.

Stability and change of optimism and pessimism in late midlife and old age across three independent studies.

Research across a number of different areas in psychology has long shown that optimism and pessimism are predictive of a number of important future life outcomes. Despite a vast literature on the correlates and consequences, we know very little about how optimism and pessimism change across adulthood and old age and the sociodemographic factors that are associated with individual differences in such trajectories. In the present study, we conducted (parallel) analyses of standard items from the Life Orientation Test (Scheier & Carver, 1985) in three comprehensive data sets: Two-wave data from both the Berlin Aging Study II (N = 1,423, aged 60-88; M = 70.4, SD = 3.70) and the Midlife in the U.S. Study (N = 1,810 aged 60-84; M = 69.12, SD = 6.47) as well as cross-sectional data from the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement (N = 17,087, aged 60-99; M = 70.19, SD = 7.53). Using latent change-regression models and locally weighted smoothing curves revealed that optimism is on average very stable after age 60, with some evidence in Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement of lowered optimism in very old age. Consistent across the three independent studies, pessimism evinced on average modest increases, ranging between .25 and .50 SD per 10 years of age. Of the sociodemographic factors examined, higher levels of education revealed the most consistent associations with lower pessimism, whereas gender evinced more study-specific findings. We take our results to demonstrate that age-related trajectories and correlates thereof differ for optimism and pessimism. Older adults appear to preserve into older ages those levels of optimistic expectations they have had at 60 years of age and show only modest increases in pessimism. We discuss possible reasons for these findings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Change in body weight of older adults before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: longitudinal results from the Berlin Aging Study II.

OBJECTIVES: Change in body weight during the COVID-19 pandemic as an unintended side effect of lockdown measures has been predominantly reported for younger and middle-aged adults. However, information on older adults for which weight loss is known to result in adverse outcomes, is scarce. In this study we describe the body weight change in older adults before, during, and after the COVID-19 lockdown measures and explore putative associated factors with a focus on the period that includes the first six months of the COVID-19 containment measures. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study with three follow-up examinations over the course of 10 years. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: In this study, we analyzed the longitudinal weight change of 472 participants of the Berlin Aging Study II (mean age of 67.5 years at baseline). MEASUREMENTS: Body weight was assessed at four time points. Additionally, differences between subgroups characterized by socio-economic, cognitive, and psychosocial variables as well as morbidity burden, biological age markers (epigenetic clocks, telomere length), and frailty were compared. RESULTS: On average, women and men lost 0.87% (n = 227) and 0.5% (n = 245) of their body weight per year in the study period covering the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Weight loss among men was particularly pronounced among groups characterized by change in physical activity due to COVID-19 lockdown, low positive affect, premature epigenetic age (7-CpG clock), diagnosed metabolic syndrome, and a more masculine gender score (all variables: p < 0.05, n = 245). CONCLUSION: During the COVID-19 pandemic, older participants lost weight with a 2.5-times (women) and 2-times (men) higher rate than what is expected in this age.