Accelerating Progress Towards the 2030 Neglected Tropical Diseases Targets: How Can Quantitative Modeling Support Programmatic Decisions?

Over the past decade, considerable progress has been made in the control, elimination, and eradication of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Despite these advances, most NTD programs have recently experienced important setbacks; for example, NTD interventions were some of the most frequently and severely impacted by service disruptions due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Mathematical modeling can help inform selection of interventions to meet the targets set out in the NTD road map 2021-2030, and such studies should prioritize questions that are relevant for decision-makers, especially those designing, implementing, and evaluating national and subnational programs. In September 2022, the World Health Organization hosted a stakeholder meeting to identify such priority modeling questions across a range of NTDs and to consider how modeling could inform local decision making. Here, we summarize the outputs of the meeting, highlight common themes in the questions being asked, and discuss how quantitative modeling can support programmatic decisions that may accelerate progress towards the 2030 targets.

'With or without you': associations between noteworthy events and cognitive complaints across 100 days.

OBJECTIVES: Daily noteworthy events have implications for physical and mental health, but less is known about the role daily events have for self-reported cognition and whether the involvement of close social partners differentiates these associations. The current study examined how daily positive and negative noteworthy events relate to subjective memory and attentional difficulties and whether close social partners moderated associations. METHOD: We used data from a 100-day microlongitudinal web-based study of 104 older adults (Nobservations=7,051; Mage=63.13 years, SDage=7.81, 88.46% Female). Participants reported on exposure to and valence of noteworthy events, involvement of close social partners, and subjective cognitive complaints at the end of each day. RESULTS: Logistic multilevel models revealed that days with a negative event were associated with increased odds of forgetting something and trouble concentrating whereas days with positive events were associated with decreased odds of trouble concentrating. Close social partner involvement did not moderate within-person associations. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that day-to-day events are correlates of cognitive complaints regardless of close social partner involvement in the events. Research should clarify the role of daily positive and negative events in personalized interventions and determine whether this person-centered approach to self-reported cognitive health helps inform diagnostic practices.

Individual differences in frequency and impact of daily memory lapses: results from a national lifespan sample.

BACKGROUND: Everyday memory problems are believed to increase with age, leading many researchers to focus on older ages when examining reports of memory lapses. However, real world memory lapses are ubiquitous across the adult lifespan, though less is known about the types of problems and their impacts at younger ages. The current study examined occurrence and impacts of memory lapses using daily diaries in a broad age range and whether characteristics of lapses varied across age, gender, or education level. METHODS: Using an 8-day daily diary protocol, 2,018 individuals (ages 25-91) provided reports of their experiences of two types of daily memory lapses (retrospective and prospective) as well as the impact those lapses had on their emotional and functional well-being that day. Using multilevel modeling, we examined the likelihood of reporting memory lapses and their impacts on daily life and whether these depended on age, gender, or education level. RESULTS: Participants reported lapses on approximately 40% of days; retrospective memory lapses were significantly more likely than prospective lapses. Older ages and higher education level were related to greater likelihood of reporting retrospective lapses. Women (compared to men) were more likely to report prospective memory lapses. Women also tended to report greater impacts of their memory lapses. Lower education levels were related to greater impacts of memory lapses compared to higher education levels. Interestingly, age was not related to impacts of lapses. DISCUSSION: Our results indicate that memory lapses are common across the lifespan and that those individuals more likely to report lapses are not necessarily those that experience the greatest impacts of those lapses on daily life. Additional work is needed to understand the daily experience of memory lapses and how they differentially affect individuals regardless of age, gender, and education. CONCLUSIONS: Memory lapses are an important aspect of daily life across the lifespan and require measurement in an individual's real-world environments. Better measurement of these experiences will allow the development of more sensitive measures of changes in cognitive functioning that may impact an individual's ability to live independently.

Daily Stress Processes as Potential Intervention Targets to Reduce Gender Differences and Improve Mental Health Outcomes in Mid- and Later Life.

The current study examines daily stress processes as risk factors for comprised mental health in midlife and later life, specifically for gender differences in depression risk. Using data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study and the National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE), we examine (1) gender differences in depression; (2) the prospective effects of differential exposure and affective responses on 10-year depression status; (3) gender differences in daily stress-depression links. Furthermore, we explore whether the protective factor of help-seeking behavior moderates the effects of daily stress on depression. Participants included 1289 (mage = 55; SD = 12; range = 34-83; 56% female) individuals who completed the second waves of MIDUS and the 8-day NSDE daily diary protocol and participated in the third wave of MIDUS approximately 10 years later. Respondents completed assessments of depression and their seeking assistance from a psychiatrist, mental health professional, counselor, or religious leader. Covariate-adjusted logistic regression analyses revealed increased odds of depression among women compared to men, but no significant gender difference after taking daily stress into account. Higher levels of stressor exposure, negative affect, and affective reactivity were associated with increased odds of depression for both men and women. Compared to those who did not engage in help-seeking behavior, those who did had significantly greater odds of depression, and there were asymmetric patterns of daily stress effects across groups. These findings highlight differential exposure, negative affect, and affective responses to daily stress as potentially accessible intervention targets for reducing stress in daily life and mitigating longer-term depression risk during mid- and later life.

Affective Reactions to daily interpersonal stressors: Moderation by family involvement and gender.

The goal of this study was to examine whether family involvement and gender moderated daily changes in affect associated with interpersonal stressors. Adults (N = 2022; M age = 56.25, Median = 56, SD = 12.20, Range = 33-84) from the second wave of the National Study of Daily Experiences participated in eight consecutive daily diaries. Each day they reported whether a daily interpersonal stressor occurred, whether family was involved, and their positive and negative affect. Results from multilevel models indicated that family involvement did not significantly moderate daily interpersonal stressor-affect associations; however, gender was a significant moderator in some instances. Women showed greater increases in negative affective reactivity to arguments and avoided arguments compared to men. Further, compared to men, women reported larger decreases in positive affective reactivity, but only for avoided arguments. Neither family involvement, gender, nor the interaction between family involvement and gender predicted affective residue. Gender differences in daily interpersonal stressors and affective reactivity may be attributable to overarching gender norms and roles that are still salient in the U.S. Our results suggest that daily interpersonal stressors may be detrimental to affective well-being, regardless of family involvement. Future work should explore associations between daily interpersonal stressors and family involvement by specific relationship roles, such as mother or spouse, for a more comprehensive understanding of what stressor characteristics impact daily affective well-being.

Age differences in allostatic load among veterans: The importance of combat exposure.

The current study examinedage differences in allostatic load among nonveterans, noncombat veterans, and combat veterans. Participants included 280 individuals from the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) survey, including 164 veterans (n = 48 combat veterans; n = 116 noncombat veterans) and 116 nonveterans. Age differences in allostatic load were similar among nonveterans and noncombat veterans, B = 0.002, SE = .011, p = .878, with older adults showing higher levels of allostatic load than their comparatively younger counterparts. Among combat veterans, however, a different pattern emerged. In this group, levels of allostatic load were similar across age, seemingly due to higher levels of allostatic load among younger combat veterans, B = -0.029, SE = .014, p = .031, ƞp 2  =  .022. Results reveal the importance of considering combat exposure when examining health outcomes of military veterans, particularly in the context of age.

Linking widowhood and later-life depressive symptoms: Do childhood socioeconomic circumstances matter?

Objectives: Widowhood and adverse childhood socioeconomic circumstances (CSC) have both been linked to increased levels of depressive symptoms in old age. Beyond their independent impact on depressive symptoms, experiencing adverse CSC may also trigger a cascade of cumulative adversity and secondary stressors across the life course that shapes how individuals weather stressful life events later on.Method: We examine whether exposure to adverse CSC moderates the relationship between later-life widowhood and depressive symptoms using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (2004-2017).Results: Mixed-effects models revealed that both widowhood and adverse CSC were associated with increased levels of depressive symptoms among men and women. Associations between widowhood and depressive symptoms, however, were not moderated by CSC for both genders.Conclusion: Persisting differences in the levels of mental health in response to later-life widowhood did not further widen in the presence of disparities experienced early in the life course. This may reflect the life-altering impact of this age-normative, yet stressful life event across the social strata.

Creation and validation of a polysocial score for mortality among community-dwelling older adults in the USA: the health and retirement study.

BACKGROUND: the interrelatedness between social determinants of health impedes researchers to identify important social factors for health investment. A new approach is needed to quantify the aggregate effect of social factors and develop person- centred social interventions. METHODS: participants ([n = 7,383], 54.5% female) were aged 65 years or above who complete an additional psychosocial questionnaire in the health and retirement study in 2006 or 2008. Social determinants of health encompassed five social domains: economic stability, neighbourhood and physical environment, education, community and social context, and healthcare system. We used the forward stepwise logistic regression to derive a polysocial score model for 5-year mortality. Indices of goodness-of-fit, discrimination and reclassification were used to assess model performance. We used logistic regression to identify the association between polysocial score and mortality. Subgroup analyses were conducted to examine sex- and race-specific association. RESULTS: polysocial score was created using 14 social determinants of health. In the training cohort, the C-statistic was 0.71 for the reference model (only age, sex and race/ethnicity) and increased to 0.75 for the continuous and categorical polysocial score. Compared with the reference model, the integrated discrimination index for adding the continuous or categorical polysocial score was both 0.03 (P values < 0.001). Participants with an intermediate (odds ratio [OR] = 0.69; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.51-0.82) or high (OR = 0.48; 95% CI, 0.38-0.60) polysocial score had lower odds of death than those in the low category in the fully adjusted model, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: the polysocial approach may offer possible solutions to monitor social environments and suggestions for older people to improve their social status for specific health outcomes.

Religious and Spiritual Development from Adolescence to Early Adulthood in the U.S.: Changes over Time and Sexual Orientation Differences.

Adolescence is a critical time in the U.S. for religious development in that many young people eschew their religious identity as they enter adulthood. In general, religion is associated with a number of positive health outcomes including decreased substance use and depression. The current study compared the developmental patterns of religiosity and spirituality in heterosexual and sexual minority youth. The design was a secondary data analysis of the first five waves of the Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and Wellness (N = 337, 71.8% female). Using multilevel linear (for spirituality) and quadratic (for religiosity) growth models, the initial level and change over time in religiosity and spirituality, as well as the correlations between growth processes, were compared between heterosexual and sexual minority individuals. The heterosexual group had significantly higher initial religiosity levels than the sexual minority group. Religiosity decreased over time at a similar rate for the heterosexual and sexual minority groups. Spirituality significantly increased over time for the sexual minority group but not for the heterosexual youth. The change over time in religiosity and spirituality were significantly and positively correlated for heterosexual individuals but were uncorrelated for sexual minority individuals. Results indicate there are differences in religious development based on sexual minority status. Future research should take into account how these differential religious and spiritual developmental patterns seen in heterosexual and sexual minority youth might predict various health outcomes.

Daily linkages among high and low arousal affect and subjective cognitive complaints.

Objectives: Subjective cognitive complaints may be an early indicator of Alzheimer's disease pathology and related dementias that can be detectable prior to objective, performance-based decline. Negative and positive affective states (NA and PA, respectively) are established psychosocial correlates of cognition in older adulthood and have demonstrated capacity for meaningful within-person fluctuations based on person-environment interactions, age, and measurement approach.Method: We utilized data from a 100-day, microlongitudinal study of 105 community-dwelling older adults (Mage = 63.19, SD = 7.80, Range = 52-88) to explore within- and between-person associations between high and low arousal NA and PA, and memory- and attention-related complaints.Results: For memory-related complaints, those who reported experiencing greater NA-high arousal had increased forgetfulness (OR = 2.23, 95%CI: 1.11-4.49, p < .05). Within persons, reporting more NA-high arousal than usual was associated with increased forgetfulness (OR = 1.01, 95%CI: 1.004-1.018, p < .01). For attention-related complaints, those who reported experiencing greater NA-low arousal had increased trouble staying focused (OR = 2.34, 95%CI: 1.17-4.66, p < .05). Within persons, reporting more NA-low arousal (OR = 1.02, 95%CI: 1.01-1.03, p < .001) and less PA-high arousal (OR = 0.96, 95%CI: 0.95-0.97, p < .001) than usual was associated with increased trouble staying focused. Additionally, reporting more PA-low arousal than usual was associated with decreased trouble staying focused among those with higher levels of conscientiousness (OR = 0.72, 95%CI: 0.57-0.92, p < .01).Conclusion: Results from this study offer a means to maximize resource allocation and personalized cognitive health efforts by pinpointing for whom and on which days boosting PA and/or reducing NA may both serve as pathways to benefit daily subjective cognition.

A socially-engaged lifestyle moderates the association between gait velocity and cognitive impairment.

Objective: Cognitive status has been linked to impaired gait velocity, and diminished social and physical engagement. To date, the potential moderating influence of lifestyle engagement on gait-cognitive status associations has not been systematically explored. The present investigation examines whether a socially- or physically-engaged lifestyle moderates the association between diminished gait velocity and likelihood of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (a-MCI) classification.Methods: Participants (aged 65+, Mage=73 years) were classified as either healthy controls (n = 30) or a-MCI (n = 24), using neuropsychological test scores and clinical judgement. Gait velocity was indexed using a GAITRite computerized walkway, engaged lifestyle (social and physical subdomains) were measured using a well-validated self-report measure, the revised Activity Lifestyle Questionnaire.Results: Logistic regression, evaluating likelihood of a-MCI classification, yielded a significant interaction between a socially-engaged lifestyle and gait velocity (b=.01, SE=.003, p=.015). Follow-up simple effects were derived for two levels (+/-1SD) of social engagement; for individuals 1 SD below the mean, the association between gait velocity and increased likelihood of a-MCI classification was exacerbated (probability of a-MCI classification for those with slower gait velocity was 60% higher for individuals 1 SD below vs 1 SD above the mean of social engagement). Physically-engaged lifestyle did not significantly moderate the gait-cognitive status association.Conclusions: The significant moderating influence of social engagement has several implications, including the likelihood that distinct mechanisms underlie the relationships of social engagement and gait velocity to cognitive function, the value of social variables for well-being, and the potential utility of socially-based interventions that may prevent/delay a-MCI onset.

Daily Stress Processes as Contributors to and Targets for Promoting Cognitive Health in Later Life.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that daily stress processes, including exposure and emotional reactivity to daily stressors, are associated with response time inconsistency (RTI), an indicator of processing efficiency and cognitive health. Furthermore, we considered daily stress-cognitive health associations at the level of individual differences and within-persons over time. METHODS: Participants were 111 older adults (mean = 80 years, range = 66-95 years) enrolled in a measurement burst study where assessments of response time-based cognitive performance, stressful experiences, and affect were administered on each of 6 days for a 2-week period. This protocol was repeated every 6 months for 2.5 years. Multilevel modeling was used to examine frequency of stressor exposure, nonstressor affect, and affect reactivity to daily stressors as individual difference and time-varying predictors of RTI. RESULTS: Between-persons, higher levels of nonstressor negative affect (b = 0.41, 95% confidence interval [CI] = -0.01 to 0.83, p = .055) and negative affect reactivity (b = 0.80, 95% CI = 0.18 to 1.42, p = .012) were associated with greater RTI. Within-persons over time, higher levels of negative affect (b = 0.20, 95% CI = 0.06 to 0.34, p = .006) and negative affect reactivity (b = 0.13, 95% CI = 0.02 to 0.24, p = .018) were associated with increased RTI among the oldest portion of the sample, whereas higher levels of positive affect (b = -0.11, 95% CI = -0.21 to -0.02, p = .019) were associated with reduced RTI. CONCLUSIONS: Negative affect reactions to daily stressors are associated with compromised RTI both between and within-persons. Findings suggest that emotional reactions to daily stressors contribute to compromise older adults' cognitive health, whereas increased positive affect may be beneficial.

Marital Transitions and Depressive Symptoms among Older Adults: Examining Educational Differences.

BACKGROUND: Later decades of the life course have undergone rapid transformations due to demographic changes in ageing societies, such as more frequent occurrences of later-life marital transitions. Adaption to these transitions, even when welcomed, brings novel chances and challenges in negotiating new social roles in old age, which could reinforce preexisting disparities in the acquisition and mastery of resources, social ties, and coping strategies. OBJECTIVES: Because the ability to weather later-life marital transitions may depend on the long arm of education acquired earlier in the life course, the present study aims to identify and track trends in the prevalence of marriage, divorce/separation, and widowhood among sociodemographic subgroups; link the occurrence of those transitions with mental health; and test the influence of educational attainment on these associations. METHODS: We employ an intraindividual, within-person approach to quantify the occurrence of marital transitions and their impact using data from the Health and Retirement Study (n = 22,013; 1992-2010). Measures of transition occurrence, depressive symptoms, and educational attainment were available across up to 10 biennial assessments. RESULTS: Individuals with less than a high school diploma displayed the highest likelihood of losing their significant other through divorce/separation or death. Marital loss was associated with increasing, and marital gain with decreasing, depressive symptoms. Compared to those with less than a high school diploma, individuals with a high school or general equivalency diploma exhibited larger increases in depressive symptoms associated with widowhood, even though their average levels of depressive symptoms were lower in the absence of this transition. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings revealed a predictable educational gradient for the occurrence of marital transitions and later-life mental health. Yet higher, formalized education did not protect the participants from increased depression in the presence of a loss-related transition, which could suggest that the strains of spousal loss may to some degree function as a leveler of the preexisting social inequalities of stratified life courses. We conclude that the benefits conferred by education are not necessarily ubiquitous, and its impact on the adaptation to spousal loss may be more complex and nuanced depending on the range of prior experiences and available coping strategies.

Understanding stress reports in daily life: a coordinated analysis of factors associated with the frequency of reporting stress.

Although stress is a common experience in everyday life, a clear understanding of how often an individual experiences and reports stress is lacking. Notably, there is little information regarding factors that may influence how frequently stress is reported, including which stress dimension is measured (i.e., stressors-did an event happen, subjective stress-how stressed do you feel, conditional stress-how stressful a stressor was) and the temporal features of that assessment (i.e., time of day, day of study, weekday vs. weekend day). The purpose of the present study was to conduct a coordinated analysis of five independent ecological momentary assessment studies utilizing varied stress reporting dimensions and temporal features. Results indicated that, within days, stress was reported at different frequencies depending on the stress dimension. Stressors were reported on 15-32% of momentary reports made within a day; across days, the frequency ranged from 42 to 76% of days. Depending on the cutoff, subjective stress was reported more frequently ranging about 8-56% of all moments within days, and 40-90% of days. Likewise, conditional stress ranged from just 3% of moments to 22%, and 11-69% of days. For the temporal features, stress was reported more frequently on weekdays (compared to weekend days) and on days earlier in the study (relative to days later in the study); time of day was inconsistently related to stress reports. In sum, stress report frequency depends in part on how stress is assessed. As such, researchers may wish to measure stress in multiple ways and, in the case of subjective and conditional stress with multiple operational definitions, to thoroughly characterize the frequency of stress reporting.

The influence of social support and perceived stress on response time inconsistency.

OBJECTIVES: Lack of social support and high levels of stress represent potentially modifiable risk factors for cognitive aging. In this study we examined the relationships between these two risk factors and response time inconsistency (RTI), or trial-to-trial variability in choice response time tasks. RTI is an early indicator of declining cognitive health, and examining the influence of modifiable psychosocial risk factors on RTI is important for understanding and promoting cognitive health during adulthood and old age. METHODS: Using data from a community sample study (n = 317; Mage = 49, range = 19-83), we examined the effects of social support, including size of network and satisfaction with support, global perceived stress, and their interactions on RTI. RESULTS: Neither size of network nor satisfaction with support was associated with RTI independent of perceived stress. Stress was positively associated with increased RTI on all tasks, independent of social support. Perceived stress did not interact with either dimension of social support to predict RTI, and perceived stress effects were invariant across age and sex. CONCLUSION: Perceived stress, but not social support, may be a unique and modifiable risk factor for normal and pathological cognitive aging. Discussion focuses on the importance of perceived stress and its impact on RTI in supporting cognitive health in adulthood and old age.

Daily Smoking and Subjective Health Complaints in Adolescence.

INTRODUCTION: Using data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey, this study used a repeated cross-sectional design to examine associations between daily smoking, gender, and self-reported health complaints in five cohorts of adolescents over a 16-year period. METHODS: Data were from nationally representative cohorts of 15-year-old youth in Norway in 1993/1994, 1997/1998, 2001/2002, 2005/2006, and 2009/2010 (n total = 7761). Dependent variables were psychological, somatic, and total health complaints. A mixed GLM model examined main and interaction effects of smoking (daily, intermittent, nonsmoking), year, and gender in predicting complaints. Time periods were segmented to compare trends across smoking groups in specific periods. RESULTS: Prevalence of daily smoking declined from 15.5% (1993/1994) to 6.0% (2009/2010). All health complaint scores were significantly higher for smokers and for girls (vs. boys). Smoking status by year interactions were significant for all complaint variables during the period of sharpest decline of daily smoking prevalence (2001/2002-2005/2006), with daily smokers experiencing increases in health complaints while intermittent and nonsmokers did not. Smoking status by gender interactions were significant for all health complaint variables, indicating that the main effect for gender (females higher) was even stronger among smokers compared with nonsmokers. Using year as unit of analysis, the size of mean differences between daily smokers and intermittent/nonsmokers in total complaints was significantly negatively correlated with daily smoking prevalence (-.963, n = 5, p < .01). CONCLUSIONS: As prevalence of daily smoking declined, daily smokers reported higher levels of complaints, suggesting increasing health problems within this group. Girls who smoke daily had particularly elevated levels of complaints. IMPLICATIONS: This study indicates that the relationship between daily smoking and concurrent health symptomatology in adolescents is changing over time, with higher levels of health complaints reported as overall smoking prevalence declines. To our knowledge, this finding has not previously been reported. If youth are smoking to cope with distress, pain, or other health concerns, tobacco control objectives will be increasingly difficult to achieve with adolescents. Levels of health complaints are particularly high among girls who are daily smokers. The findings suggest that restrictive measures and persuasive communications may not be sufficient tobacco prevention strategies for adolescent populations. Young smokers may need counseling and support.

A Double-Edged Sword: Race, Daily Family Support Exchanges, and Daily Well-Being.

This study contributes to research on race and family ties by exploring racial differences in the direct effects of family support exchanges on daily well-being and the extent to which family support buffers/exacerbates stressor reactivity. African Americans and European Americans aged 34 to 84 (N = 1,931) from the National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE) reported on family support exchanges (i.e., support received/support provided), daily stressors, and negative affect during 8 days of telephone interviews. On a daily basis, receiving family support was not associated with well-being, whereas providing family support was associated with compromised well-being among African Americans. As expected, receiving family support buffered reactivity to daily tensions for both races, whereas providing emotional support to family exacerbated African Americans' reactivity to daily tensions. Together, our findings suggest that even after considering the benefits of receiving family support, providing family support takes an emotional toll on African Americans.

Daily stressors and self-reported changes in memory in old age: the mediating effects of daily negative affect and cognitive interference.

This study examined individual differences in exposure to daily stressors and self-reported changes in memory among older adults. A sample of 87 older adults completed measures of daily stressful experiences, negative affect (NA), cognitive interference (CI), and rated their memory compared to six months ago. Results indicated that more frequent exposure to daily stressors was associated with rating one's memory to be worse compared to six months prior. Furthermore, CI, but not NA partially mediated this association. The findings highlight CI as a psychological pathway for understanding the links between daily stress and perceptions of memory and cognition in old age.

Between-person and within-person associations among processing speed, attention switching, and working memory in younger and older adults.

UNLABELLED: BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: Theories of cognitive aging predict associations among processes that transpire within individuals, but are often tested by examining between-person relationships. The authors provide an empirical demonstration of how associations among measures of processing speed, attention switching, and working memory are different when considered between persons versus within persons over time. METHODS: A sample of 108 older adults (M (age) = 80.8, range = 66-95) and 68 younger adults (M (age) = 20.2, range = 18-24) completed measures of processing speed, attention switching, and working memory on six occasions over a 14-day period. Multilevel modeling was used to examine processing speed and attention switching performance as predictors of working memory performance simultaneously across days (within-person) and across individuals (between-person). RESULTS: The findings indicates that simple comparison and response speed predicted working memory better than attention switching between persons, whereas attention switching predicted working memory better than simple comparison and response speed within persons over time. Furthermore, the authors did not observe strong evidence of age differences in these associations either within or between persons. CONCLUSION: The findings of the current study suggest that processing speed is important for understanding between-person and age-related differences in working memory, whereas attention switching is more important for understanding within-person variation in working memory. The authors conclude that theories of cognitive aging should be evaluated by analysis of within-person processes, not exclusively age-related individual differences.

How Do Marital Transitions Affect Self-Perceptions of Aging?

OBJECTIVES: We analyzed whether marital status and experiences of marital loss or gain were associated with self-perceptions of aging (SPA), a major psychosocial mechanism of healthy aging. METHOD: We used data from 7028 participants of the Health and Retirement Study. Participants reported their marital status and their positive and negative SPA on two occasions 4 years apart. We ran general linear models to analyze differences in SPA between men and women who remained married, became divorced or widowed, or remarried following divorce or widowhood. RESULTS: Participants who experienced marital loss had lower positive SPA than participants who remained marred. Participants who experienced marital gain had lower negative SPA than participants who remained married. None of the associations differed between men and women. DISCUSSION: Results suggest that it may not be marital status itself, but rather the transition into or out of marriage, that impacts how people appraise their own aging.