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.

Context Matters: Internet Usage and Loneliness Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: Later life is often categorized by higher-than-average levels of loneliness, but individual differences are vast and not well understood. Emerging evidence indicates that broad-based contextual factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic - and the use of the internet throughout - are differentially associated with the experience of loneliness. We therefore target internet usage and loneliness among middle-aged and older adults during the pandemic and examine the moderating role of age, gender, and limiting illness therein. METHODS: We applied hierarchical regression models to data from the COVID-19 sub-study Wave 1 (June/July 2020) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (N= 4,790; Mage= 70.2; SD= 9.0; range: 50-90; 43.5% male). RESULTS: Infrequent internet use was associated with less loneliness compared to very frequent users - an association that strengthened with age. Conversely, purpose of internet use was associated with more loneliness, with higher levels exhibited by those searching for health-related information - an effect stronger among those with a limiting illness. DISCUSSION: Findings imply that infrequent internet use may reduce loneliness, while health-related internet searches may increase loneliness among older adults with different physical capacities. Findings are contrary to pre-pandemic reports, underscoring the importance of broad-based contextual factors for understanding loneliness across adulthood and old age.

Context Matters: Health Sensitivity in the Daily Lives of Older Adults Living Through the COVID-19 Pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: Throughout 2021, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic caused renewed restrictions across Germany. Given the growing evidence that the pandemic negatively affects older adults' health and well-being, this study investigated health sensitivity (emotional reactions to momentary health challenges) and its moderators (age, morbidity, perceived COVID-19 risks and worries) among older adults in their everyday lives during the second and third waves of the pandemic. METHODS: Multilevel models were applied to self-reported momentary health and affect data, collected 6 times per day across 7 consecutive days in 104 participants (Mage = 76.35; range: 67-88 years), assessed between April and June 2021 (~300,000 COVID-19 cases in Germany at the time). RESULTS: Health sensitivity was unrelated to age and lower with higher morbidity. Importantly, older adults showed higher health sensitivity in moments when they also perceived a greater risk of contracting COVID-19. DISCUSSION: Findings suggest that sociocontextual factors related to the pandemic modulate emotional reactions to momentary health challenges, thereby underscoring the consequences of COVID-19 for older adults' emotional experiences.

Partner Pain and Affect in the Daily Lives of Older Couples.

OBJECTIVES: The susceptibility of older adults' affect to fluctuations in their own health (within-person health sensitivity) indicates how they handle everyday health challenges. In old age, affective well-being is often increasingly influenced by close others, yet it is unknown whether older adults' affect is additionally susceptible to fluctuations in their spouse's health (within-partnership health sensitivity) and the extent to which age and relationship satisfaction moderate such associations. METHODS: Parallel sets of multilevel actor-partner interdependence models are applied to self-reported health (feelings of pain/discomfort) and positive and negative affect, obtained 6 times a day over 7 consecutive days from 2 independent samples, the Berlin Couple Dynamics Study (N = 87 couples; Mage = 75 years; M relationship length = 46 years) and the Socio-Economic Panel Couple Dynamics Study (N = 151 couples; Mage = 72 years; M relationship length = 47 years). RESULTS: Husbands and wives had lower positive affect and higher negative affect in moments when they reported more pain (within-person health sensitivity) and when their respective spouse reported more pain (within-partnership health sensitivity). Tests for moderation suggest that within-person, but not within-partnership, health sensitivity is lower at older ages and higher with more satisfying relationships. DISCUSSION: These findings empirically illustrate life-span notions that close relationships shape time-varying health-affect links and thus underscore the theoretical and practical utility of examining social-contextual antecedents of older adults' everyday affective well-being.

The genome sequence of the long-spined sea scorpion, Taurulus bubalis (Euphrasén, 1786).

We present a genome assembly from an individual female Taurulus bubalis (the long-spined sea scorpion; Chordata; Actinopteri; Perciformes; Cottidae). The genome sequence is 615 megabases in span. The complete assembly is scaffolded into 21 chromosomal pseudomolecules.

Trajectories of multiple subjective well-being facets across old age: The role of health and personality.

Subjective well-being is often characterized by average stability across old age, but individual differences are substantial and not yet fully understood. This study targets physical and cognitive health and personality as individual difference characteristics and examines their unique and interactive roles for level and change in a number of different facets of subjective well-being. We make use of medical diagnoses, performance-based indicators of physical (grip strength) and cognitive functioning (Digit Symbol), and extraversion and neuroticism and apply parallel sets of multilevel growth models to multiyear well-being data obtained in the Berlin Aging Study 2 (N = 1,216; Mage = 71; SD = 3.84; 51% women) and the German Socio-Economic Panel (N = 3,418; Mage = 70; SD = 6.89; 51% women). Results revealed by and large average stability of life satisfaction, morale, and emotions (anger, fear, sadness, happiness) across old age. Most important for our research questions, higher morbidity, poor performance on grip strength and perceptual speed tests, lower extraversion, and higher neuroticism were each uniquely associated with lower life satisfaction, morale, and positive affect and higher negative affect. Some evidence emerged for facet-specific health-personality interaction effects in predicting affective experiences, but effects observed were not consistent across studies and of small size. We take our findings to indicate that health and personality traits constitute important individual difference characteristics for our understanding of subjective well-being in old age and that these likely do not interact with one another to shape well-being. We discuss theoretical and practical implications. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Long-term outcome of children receiving home parenteral nutrition: a 20-year single-center experience in 302 patients.

BACKGROUND: More information is needed regarding the prognosis of children receiving home parenteral nutrition (HPN). This article describes 20-year outcome data in children receiving HPN and provides separate profiles for the major pediatric diagnostic subgroups. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This retrospective study included children who started receiving HPN between January 1, 1980, and December 31, 1999, in a single pediatric HPN center. RESULTS: A total of 302 children were recruited, 230 (76%) with primary digestive disorders and 72 (24%) with nonprimary digestive disorders. Median age at HPN onset was 1.5 years. Median duration of HPN was 1.3 years. By January 1, 2000, 54% had weaned from HPN, 26% were still receiving HPN, 16% had died, and 4% had undergone intestinal transplantation. The survival probabilities at 2, 5, 10, and 15 years were 97%, 89%, 81%, and 72%, respectively. The likelihood and cause of death depended on the underlying diagnosis. Nine percent of children with primary digestive disorders died, 24% from their primary disease and 48% from liver disease or sepsis. Children with intractable diarrhea of infancy had the highest mortality rate (25%) and the highest incidence of liver disease (48%; P = 0.0002). Thirty-eight percent of children with primary nondigestive diseases died, 94% from their primary disease and 6% from liver disease or sepsis. CONCLUSIONS: Outcome and survival of children receiving HPN are mainly determined by their underlying diagnosis. Nearly all children with primary digestive disease survive if referred early to an expert center.